Causeway Coast & Glens Council to debate call for all-Ireland cancer therapy and care approach
Causeway Coast and Glens Council is to debate a call for all-Ireland provision of CAR (chimeric antigen receptor) T-cell therapy and cancer care.
The issue will be raised at a meeting of full Council on January 6, 2026, by Sinn Fein Cllr Leanne Peacock who has tabled the motion for discussion.
Cllr Peacock’s motion relates to the death of a Newry mother-of-three in May of this year.
Catherine Sherry was diagnosed with lymphoma in September 2024 at the age of 42. She was accepted for CAR (chimeric antigen receptor) T-cell therapy but had to travel to King's College Hospital in London, despite the treatment being available in Dublin, just an hour away from her home in Newry.
Catherine died in May of this year in King’s College Hospital in London. Speaking to the BBC at the time, Mrs Sherry’s widower Fergal said: “If we were allowed to go to Dublin she would have been treated sooner."
"When you are going through cancer treatment you want your family near," he said.
The motion, which was seconded by Sinn Fein party colleague Cllr Ciaran McQuillan, proposes that Causeway Coast and Glens Council: “conveys its sincerest and heartfelt condolences to the family and friends of Catherine Sherry, who tragically passed away on May 12th, 2025; acknowledges that Catherine tragically passed away in London, separated from her three loving sons, having been forced to travel overseas for treatment that is available on the island of Ireland; commends the courageous public commentary of Fergal Sherry, Catherine’s husband, and supports the family’s campaign for all-Ireland provision of CAR (chimeric antigen receptor) T-cell therapy and cancer care to make sure no other family has to endure what the Sherry family went through.”
The motion also asks Council to agree “entirely with Fergal’s words, that, ‘when you’re going through cancer treatment, you need your family near’ and to write urgetly to “both Health Ministers, Minister Nesbitt and Minister Carroll MacNeill, to ask what plans they have for the provision of this treatment on an all-island basis and to encourage them to explore every option, including existing cross-border frameworks and the Shared Island Unit, to deliver this essential service on an all-Ireland basis.”