Raising cervical cancer awareness among South Asians
Chantelle Chand, 604.375.8730, cmchand@sfu.ca
Nidhi Nayyar, 604.221.1200, nidhi_nayyar@sfu.ca
Carol Thorbes, PAMR, 778.782.3035, cthorbes@sfu.ca
Two Simon Fraser University students who are the first recipients of the new Changemakers award are using it to draw attention to the high incidence of cervical cancer in the Lower Mainland’s South Asian community.
Sean Peters, an SFU anthropology and business graduate who co-founded Global Agents of Change—a Vancouver-based social change incubator—created Changemakers. The $500 award supports students who launch an innovative, grassroots project aimed at creating positive social change off campus.
Inspired by research they came across in their studies as molecular biology undergrads, Chantelle Chand and Nidhi Nayyar, both of South Asian heritage, are using their award to mount a forum.
They want to bring together researchers, non-profit sex education groups, health professionals—especially gynecologists—media and women dealing with cervical cancer to address a taboo but deadly topic in South Asian communities.
“Because women in South Asian cultures are usually conservative and lack education about reproductive health, they tend to ignore the issue at their own peril,” says Chand. “The presence of medical instruments, other women from their community in a doctor’s office and male doctors will make many women either leave, without being tested, or stay away from a clinic.”
Referring to published statistics and research, Chand, notes cervical cancer is the most common cancer among women in India. The disease claims the lives of almost 100,000 East Indian women annually—140,000 Indian women are diagnosed with the disease annually.
Studies have correlated South Asian women’s death rate from cervical cancer in B.C., which is the highest among all women in the province, to ignorance about pap tests and failure to get them.
Routine pap smears help cure more than 90 per cent of cases caught early. But less than 28 per cent of Indo-Canadian women get them, compared to 86 per cent of their Euro-Canadian counterparts.
Chand and Nayyar hope to instigate a turnaround in South Asian women’s reluctance to deal with reproductive health issues by fostering private contemplation and public discussion at their yet-to-be-finalized forum.
Chand lives in Surrey and Nayyar is a Vancouver resident.
—30— (Photo available for download at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sfupamr/4743778714/)
Kelley
MBB department needs more of you people. Bless you.