Student athletes help kick off cervical cancer awareness program
January 25th, 2007
Ending Cervical Cancer Information Session
Tuesday, Feb. 6, 5-6 p.m.
Red Barn, UofL’s Belknap Campus
Open to the public.
Women athletes at the University of Louisville gave their support to the fight against cervical cancer Jan. 24 as they joined state, medical and university representatives to kick off “Ending Cervical Cancer in our Lifetime,” a statewide educational initiative.
Athletes from the university’ women’s basketball, field hockey, swimming and diving, softball, soccer and rowing teams surrounded the basketball court during halftime at the UofL - University of Pittsburgh women’s basketball game and joined hands to “Make the Connection” to fight cervical cancer.
“We’re excited to do this,” said Shannon Smyth, who volunteered along with her soccer teammates. The team is among the student athletes at UofL who help promote healthy lifestyles through the community outreach program, Cardsfit.
“We’re always willing to do whatever we can to help,” Smyth said.
It is a privilege to be able to take part in the ceremony in Louisville, she said, especially with the university’s connection to the vaccine.
The world’s first effective vaccine against cervical cancer, called Gardasil®, is based on scientific work that A. Bennett Jenson and Shin-je Ghim pioneered at Georgetown University. The researchers now are at UofL’s Brown Cancer Center, and are working on a second-generation vaccine.
Cervical cancer is the world’s second-most common cancer affecting women. About 500,000 women are diagnosed with it every year, and more than 280,000 die from it. Globally, it is the second leading cause of cancer deaths in women.
More than 70 percent of cervical cancers are caused by one of four types of the Human Papillomavirus (HPV). Data shows that although half of all women who develop cervical cancer are between 35 and 55 years old, many of them probably were exposed to cancer-causing HPVs in their late teens or early 20s.
HPV infection is most common among young adults between the ages of 18 and 28. In fact, of the approximately 6 million new cases of genital HPV in the United States, an estimated 74 percent of them occur in 15 to 24 year olds.
“Ending Cervical Cancer in our Lifetime” will offer educational programs at Kentucky’s universities to inform college women about ways to reduce their risk of cervical cancer and the importance of making healthy lifestyle choices.
“It’s important to get the word out to young women that the most effective thing they can do to protect themselves is to get regular cervical cancer screenings and ask their health care provider about the vaccine,” said UofL alumna Nila Meeks, who coordinated the kick-off event for the Kentucky Cancer Program.
Also taking part in the event were researchers Jenson and Ghim, UofL President James Ramsey, Kentucky Lt. Gov. Steve Pence and Brown Cancer Center Director Donald Miller.
