Inquests into the deaths of two young County Armagh mothers who died from cervical cancer after smear tests were misread are expected to take place in the autumn of next year.
The families of Erin Harbinson and Lynsey Courtney were present at Laganside Court on Thursday morning as further brief preliminary hearings were held.
Erin Harbinson died in August 2024 at her home in Tandragee, at the age of 44.
It was discovered that three smear tests had been misread and hers was one of the pivotal cases which led to the review ordered by the Southern Health Trust which involved over 17,500 women receiving letters.
The mother-of-four became a fierce advocate for women’s health, despite undergoing intensive treatment, having been diagnosed with advanced stage cervical cancer in 2021.
She joined the Ladies with Letters campaign group in a bid to protect other women from going through what she had.
Erin’s husband, Trevor, and her family and friends believe her death could have been prevented had three smear tests – in 2012, 2015 and 2018 – not been misread.
Doctors had informed Erin and the family that interventions – such as a colposcopy or hysterectomy – could have saved her life but, by then, the cancer had become incurable.
Lynsey Courtney, from Portadown, passed away at Belfast City Hospital in September 2018.
The 30-year-old had died after being diagnosed with advanced cervical cancer, again after a misread smear test.
The family of the mother-of-one later set up the Lynsey Courtney Foundation in her memory, and it has raised thousands of pounds of funding to help with research into cervical cancer research at Queen’s University in Belfast.
Ahead of full inquests into the circumstances surrounding their deaths, further preliminary hearings have now been scheduled to take place on January 22.
Both are expected to hear evidence from many of the same witnesses.
Coroner’s counsel Mr Aiken, first addressing the hearing relating to the death of Erin Harbinson, said, in relation to disclosure, “substantial work” had already been undertaken in terms of receiving material and considering it.
He said the Coroner’s legal team intended to “review the position in respect of material and make sure that we have made the necessary request to everyone who might have potentially relevant material”, before forming the “best plan as to the organisation of that material so that it can be most efficiently used” at the inquests.
Mr Aiken also told the hearing there had been a “significant number of witness statements obtained to date”.
He felt it was “premature” to identify a date for inquest as yet, with the Coroner agreeing a further preliminary should be held in January.
The families’ legal representative Malachy McGowan told the brief hearing that they appreciated that “work is ongoing”, but added: “The fact that we’ve nothing to add doesn’t detract from the fact that we do intend to engage.”
During the update on the death of Lynsey Courtney, Mr Aiken again indicated they would be continuing to gather witness statements, with a further preliminary hearing on January 22.
The Coroner presiding indicated she was “looking at dates” in the autumn of next year for both inquests to proceed, but described it as a “rough estimate”.
She added: “We’ll have to carefully consider how we’re going to hold these inquests after each other, but obviously there’s some common ground to both of them so it will take careful timetabling.”
