Ms Karen Smyth:

Six months ago, we were just a few mums and dads who recognised a pattern of similar illnesses among our daughters. Today, we represent more than 130 teenage girls and receive more reports every week of girls displaying a similar pattern of debilitating side effects.

The Department of Health and the HSE have acknowledged they know some young women will suffer detrimental effects from the vaccine. We represent 130 of these girls. My daughter Laura celebrated her 18th birthday last week and this is her story. When Laura brought home the consent form from school in 2010 I read it thoroughly. I also went on the World Health Organization's website to educate myself about this vaccine as it was new to Ireland and I did not know much about it. After reading the information supplied by the HSE, I felt not only reassured that this was a safe vaccine but also that this was something very important for my little girl and her future health. I naively thought that all details, good and bad, had to be printed to enable parents to make properly informed choices for their children.

After Laura’s vaccination she became severely fatigued on a daily basis and her short-term memory and concentration deteriorated. She also started to experience food intolerances for the first time. Laura suffered visual disturbances and noise sensitivity. Severe daily headaches, burning muscles and joint pain were her constant companions. She was unable to continue with sports, which had played such an integral part of her life before the vaccination. All extra-curricular and social activity had, by now, become impossible for her. Her friends stopped calling as she did not have the strength to go out with them. Slowly, life as Laura knew it was changing.

To put things in perspective, my mother, who was in her 80’s, was going out to day care while Laura was lying in bed or on the couch. We had to use my mother’s wheelchair for Laura when she did not have the energy to walk. It was plain for anyone to see something was very seriously wrong. We started to visit our GP more and more but no one seemed to have any idea what was going on. Tests and more tests were performed and nearly every box on the blood forms was ticked. Every kind of sample one could imagine was requested, yet none of the results showed any clues as to what was wrong with my daughter.

Weeks and months went by, with Laura lying in her bed exhausted but unable to get any kind of rejuvenating sleep, racked with pain and barely able to communicate. The weeks became months, and we saw less of her around the house as she was spending most days in her bed. At her lowest point, I found her younger brother Conor spoon-feeding her as she did not have the strength to feed herself. She moved into a spare bed in his room, as she was lonely and afraid on her own.

Five years post-Gardasil, my daughter was so debilitated that she could not attend her uncle's wedding and struggled to attend her grandparents' funerals. She is no longer able to attend family outings with us and we feel guilty if we leave her at home. Laura knew from an early age what she wanted and had her sights set very high. Since receiving the vaccination all this has changed as Laura has missed almost her entire secondary school education.

This is Laura's story in her own words:

Hi, my name is Laura, I'm 18 years old and live in Louth. I am one of the too many girls who have been affected by the HPV vaccine, Gardasil. It has rendered my life very difficult. I am lying here in bed when I should be in school preparing for my leaving cert. My cognitive function is so bad I can't even manage home schooling at the moment. My symptoms include chronic fatigue, chronic pain, severe headaches, dizziness, short-term memory loss, very poor concentration, food intolerances, cysts, heart and breathing difficulties, light and noise sensitivity and menstrual disruption.

I’d like to think I am an intelligent girl, once aiming to study psychology in Trinity. I was playing basketball and kayaking. I had so many friends and wanted to travel the world. Now all those things have been taken from me. You have no idea how horrible this is. My own mother has devoted every second of her life to helping me and finding me relief in expensive therapies, supplements, and hopefully one day a cure. Not only has this vaccine taken my life, it's stolen my mother's. I'm five years down the line and I just turned 18. I try my best to keep positive but at this point I don't have the energy to keep going the way I am. I just want recognition and help for all these girls. We've been put in a box for far too long.

The Irish Government or the HSE has not put in place a support system to cater for all of these previously healthy Irish girls suffering ongoing, chronic and long-term symptoms post-Gardasil. Their fate is unknown and their debilitating health issues are potentially life-long. Many of these girls will never complete their leaving certificate.

We need to provide holistic long-term treatment plans for these girls. Families are not coping financially with the ongoing need for doctors, specialists, hospital stays and medication. We need to get help for these children to explore alternative options for schooling and education, and allow them exemptions if attempting to sit their leaving certificate. We need to support these girls with basic requirements such as disability allowances and medical cards as their condition is not being recognised.

I thank the Deputies and Senators for their time and interest in the young women throughout the country affected by the State-sponsored HPV vaccination programme. We ask them for the suspension of the HPV vaccine programme pending a full, independent and transparent investigation into the safety of the HPV vaccine, including the many long-term side effects and adverse reactions suffered by the girls in REGRET; recognition and acknowledgement of our daughters' post-Gardasil conditions followed by holistic approach medical treatments by specialists in this area; financial assistance for our families to meet their children’s ongoing medical needs; the urgent establishment of a task force comprising senior officials from the Departments of Health, Education and Skills and Social Protection to fast-track support for our daughters; and full information from the HSE to parents, including the patient information leaflet as drawn up by the drug company, which requests that parents inform their health care provider if their daughter experiences any of the 21 known side effects as part of the informed consent process.

I hope the stories of these 130 Irish teenage girls will trigger a positive response from the committee, and that committee members will help us ensure their immediate and long-term needs are met. This is the very least they deserve from us, as their future has been so unfairly impacted upon by medical decisions outside of their control.