An estimated 6,000 people braved the elements in Letterkenny yesterday to demand improved cancer care services in Co Donegal.
Organised by the Donegal Action for Cancer Care committee, the rally drew people from all parts of the county and left local politicians in no doubt that people in the northwest feel that they are being treated as second-class citizens.
"Enough is enough," the co-chairman of the committee, John Quinn, told the crowd in Letterkenny, adding: "There are six people [ TDs] who travel to Dublin with a mandate from the ballot box and they have not delivered - but we will deliver."
A number of cancer patients related stories of horror trips to Dublin.
In one case, a woman was told that there would be medical assistance on the bus taking her home after she had an operation.
However, this failed to materialise and she had to ask the bus driver to stop the bus so she could go to the toilet en route - in her nightclothes.
Lynn McDevitt, the other co-chairperson of the action committee, revealed that some children in Donegal who are cancer patients must get up at 2am in order to travel to Dublin for blood tests at 8am. "In this day and age, this is not on," she declared.
There is also anger at the slow roll-out of the Breastcheck screening service, which is still not available in the county.