After Pinki Rawat lost her sister-in-law to cervical cancer, she saw the disease as a certain death sentence — and in many places it is. Left untreated, it is an extremely painful way to die: The cervix enlarges, pushes through the vagina into other areas of the body, and ultimately causes women to bleed to death. Cervical cancer kills more than 270,000 women a year, nearly 90 percent of them in countries where the majority of the population doesn’t have access to preventive services.

Rawat lives in India, where over 70,000 women die each year from cervical cancer — more than anywhere in the world. The country has not introduced the vaccine for human papillomavirus, the sexually transmitted virus that is the primary cause of cervical cancer, in its immunization program and has inadequate screening for the disease. Fortunately, Rawat did not become a statistic. She went in for a screening, which revealed precancerous lesions, then was treated with cryotherapy to freeze them away.

Cancer, Health, Activists, Social Activism, Global Development,