By Frances Reid, Director of Programmes
2 October 2025
Last week I was honoured to be in New York to take part in side meetings linked to the United Nations General Assembly, flying the flag for women with ovarian cancer.
The primary reason for going was an invitation to be a panellist at the launch of an important report on Bridging the Gap in Women’s Cancer Care, developed by the Swedish Institute of Health Economics. Dr Thomas Hofmarcher, the lead author had interviewed me for the report, asking about the global experiences of women with ovarian cancer in the Every Woman Study. I can highly recommend his report which you can find here: a valuable tool for anyone wishing to advocate for women’s cancers to be a global priority. One of the notable key speakers was Professor Mohammed Hassany, Egypt’s Minister of Health talking about their Presidential Initiative on Women’s Health and the effort it took to get off the ground, but also how it has become a ‘no brainer’ to expand. I also attended the UICC meeting on Bridging the Care Gap, focussing on national cancer control plans. In particular you may want to take a look at the Australia Cancer Plan, an interactive website, and the product of some intensive, wide ranging but inspiring work led by Cancer Australia.
Both meetings were excellent in reinforcing some key concepts such as the importance of data, building political will, and providing solutions not just identifying problems. Thanks to Dr Cary Adams, who memorably reworded Dorothy O’Keefe’s modus operandi of “lift, shift, tailor” into “Lift, Shift, Taylor Swift”, highlighting the importance of looking for good practice but adapting it to your own setting. Dorothy, who is the CEO of Cancer Australia, also talked about the importance of ‘turning ourselves down a bit to listen’, to the needs and wishes of the many and varied
stakeholders.
Inspiring as the meetings were, the conversations before and after were also well worth the jet lag. I am used to attending conferences around the world, but these side meetings are a chance to really focus, talk, listen and network, and for me provided links to some key people and organisations previously out of reach, and some time to catch up with amazing colleagues in the field such as WOCC Ambassador and UICC President Elect Dr Zainab Shinkafi Bagudu, and International Gynecologic Cancer Society’s CEO Mary Eiken. We’ll be reunited in South Africa in November, when various members of the Every Woman Study team will be presenting data in the IGCS scientific congress on variations in access to treatment, women’s support needs and their priorities. We also managed a celebratory margarita as we await the publication date of the first results from our joint initiative. Watch this space.