Lanka’s First Lady joins Commonwealth campaign to combat cervical cancer

First Lady Prof. Maithree Wickramasinghe was a discussant at a fireside chat on the subject of “Inspiring change: Together for the elimination of cervical cancer in the Commonwealth” at the Commonwealth Secretariat in London on Friday.

The event was part of the Commonwealth Spouses and Partners Programme and saw Prof. Wickramasinghe in conversation with Jeanette Kagame, the first Lady of the Commowealth Chair, Rwanda, and the First Ladies of Bahamas, Ghana, Nigeria and Zambia.

She spoke on how she was driving advocacy and interventions on the elimination of cervical cancer in her country while in a second session she joined the others to brainstorm the ways in which the coalition could provide assistance in continuing to raise greater public awareness about cervical cancer.

The Commonwealth carries a significant cervical cancer burden, particularly in low- and middle-income countries, a media release on the event said. Whilst the Commonwealth represents 30 percent of the world’s population, it carries a 40 percent share of the global mortality burden.

“If steps are not taken to radically reduce the rising incidence of cervical cancer within the

Commonwealth through targeted programmes in research, prevention, early detection and treatment, by 2030 the Commonwealth can expect the number of new cases of cervical cancer to have risen by 55% (to 324,598) and the deaths by 62% (to 186,066 deaths) over the same period, with one woman dying in the Commonwealth every three minutes by 2030,” it said.

In 2022, Commonwealth Heads of Government resolved to “accelerate the elimination of cervical cancer as a public health problem, in line with the WHO’s global strategy to accelerate the elimination of cervical cancer as a public health problem”.

“They also resolved to continue to take steps to ensure that by 2025, girls in the Commonwealth have access to vaccination against human papillomavirus infection by age 13 in accordance with country contexts,” the media statement said. “Alongside this commitment was also a call for solidarity to accelerate cervical cancer elimination by First Ladies and Partners of the Commonwealth countries during CHOGM.”

The event on Friday was intended to build on this and was “a step forward in inspiring the change needed in the Commonwealth to accelerate cervical cancer elimination and tackle challenges that hinder the race”.