Erin Harbinson (44) from Tandragee was diagnosed with advanced stage cervical cancer in 2021 after the results of three smear tests were misread over the course of a decade, for which the Southern Health and Social Care Trust apologised. The classroom assistant was diagnosed just two weeks before a major review was ordered into the results of 17,500 smear tests carried out within the Southern Trust. That review led to the formation of the Ladies with Letters group, which has offered their sympathies to Erin’s family.
Tributes have poured in following news of Erin’s death on Saturday. The Ladies with Letters group, posting on social media, said: “It is with great sadness we have learned that our beautiful friend Erin passed away yesterday afternoon. “There are no words to describe the wonderful woman Erin was and how she battled her illness with such dignity.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with Erin’s husband Trevor, children, Matthew (his partner Lesley-Ann), Liam, Keelan, Connie and family circle. “Such a privilege to have known you Erin..
.you will never be forgotten.” Ulster Unionist Councillor Julie Flaherty, said she was “devastated at the loss of this absolute lady”.
“She was a true warrior – a battle hardened campaigner during her hardest days, always for others. We will continue the fight Erin.” Independent Unionist Councillor Paul Berry said “a very dark cloud” had descended over Tandragee following the passing of a “loving wife, mother and friend to so many people”.
“She fought a brave battle and was so courageous. She was a kind, caring and very thoughtful girl who will be missed by so many, young and old. The town really has Trevor and whole family in their prayers at this time.
” Speaking to UTV in April, Erin told her story: “They told me that three of my smears had been missed. One at the very beginning. Okay.
You know, maybe he was an experienced man. He could see it. “But then after that a blind man could have picked it up and that it was a definite case of they should have definitely been reported as positive, but they weren’t.
I was handed some forms to seek counselling and I was told that a serious adverse incident would be reported and that was that, I was sent off on my merry way to deal with it. “It was like my world had just come out from underneath me. The one thing you’re always told when you get a cancer diagnosis is this isn’t your fault.
Please don’t ever think this is your fault. This is nothing that you’ve ever done. It’s nobody’s fault.
Cancer’s just one of them things. "And I came out thinking, no, this is somebody’s fault. They did this to me.
They’ve killed me, in a way they’ve taken my life away. “I have a chronic illness that I have to live with for the rest of my days.” Erin was told she could have received a colposcopy, or hysterectomy to treat her cancer before it developed to an advanced level.
“I just felt so let down by the system that I had trusted all my life and they just let me down,” she said. Erin passed away peacefully at her home in Tandragee on Saturday, less than four months after she gave her UTV interview. She was the beloved wife of Trevor, a devoted mum of Matthew (his partner Lesley-Ann), Liam, Keelan and Connie, a treasured daughter of Edna (her partner Brian) and the late Gerald, also a dear sister of James (his wife Ali).
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