Denny's impact on cervical cancer legendary

Lynette Denny's decades-long campaign against cervical cancer is almost legendary.

Denny's name is synonymous with award-winning work, particularly on the early detection of pre-cancerous lesions of the cervix among poor black women who have no access to expensive screening programmes.

She has played a seminal role in developing prophylactic cervical cancer vaccines as a new and critical weapon in the fight against cervical cancer, the most common cancer among women in developing countries. There are 2.3 million cases of cervical cancer in the world at any given time, with 500 000 new cases and 250 000 deaths annually. Eighty percent of these are in developing countries.

Confirming her role as an inspirational figure in the fight against cancer, earlier this year, Denny was instrumental bringing Lance Armstrong, cycling legend and a cancer survivor to visit cancer patients at Groote Schuur Hospital two days before he took part in the Argus Cycle Tour.