Fight against cervical cancer receives major boost from record donation, as Pacific Island nations ramp up screening

Photo Supplied by UNSW. Retrieved from abc.net.au

It’s the single largest cause of cancer-related death for Pacific women — so prevalent that one health expert says it impacts “everyone that you speak to” in the region.

Women in the Pacific are 14 times more likely to die from cervical cancer than in Australia, but there are hopes a record philanthropic donation will change that.

The University of New South Wales’s Kirby Institute has received its single largest donation — nearly $26 million, from UK-based company The Swire Group — to support cervical cancer screening and treatment in seven Pacific countries.

The Kirby Institute, which works to eliminate infectious diseases, will use it to help more than 130,000 women in Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga and Samoa.

Vanessa Price, senior program manager at the Kirby Institute’s Asia and Pacific Health program, said cervical cancer was a leading cause of death in the region despite being preventable.