gynecologic cancer

Our Stories. Our Movement. — Cervivor Kicks Off Gynecologic Cancer Awareness Month 2026

By the Cervivor Communications Team

This year, nearly 118,000 people in the United States are expected to be diagnosed with a gynecologic cancer, and more than 34,000 are expected to die from one.

Behind every one of those numbers is a person — with a life, a family, questions, fears, hopes, and a story that deserves to be heard.

Each September, Gynecologic Cancer Awareness Month (GCAM) brings greater attention to these cancers and the people affected by them. 

For Cervivor’s Community Outreach & Partnership Director Tiera Wade, the month has added meaning. Three Septembers ago, her friend LeTeash Price died from ovarian cancer.

“We were diagnosed around the same time,” says Tiera, cervical cancer-free for five years. “We both fought to beat this disease, but unfortunately, LeTeash lost her battle. I promised her and her family that I would carry her legacy forward, and every time I advocate, I carry her voice with me.”

Tiera Wade
Remembrance of Tiera’s friend LeTeash

That spirit is at the heart of Cervivor’s Gynecologic Cancer Awareness Month 2026 campaign:

Our Stories. Our Movement.
Every Voice. Every Journey. Every Gynecologic Cancer.

This September, Cervivor will bring together patients, survivors, people living with metastatic disease, caregivers, advocates, healthcare professionals, experts, and partner organizations from across the gynecologic cancer community.

But our goal is not simply to raise awareness for one month. It’s to ensure that people affected by every gynecologic cancer can see their experiences represented.

Different Cancers. Shared Challenges.

Gynecologic cancers share parts of the same anatomy — those “below-the-belt” parts — but no two experiences are exactly alike. Cervical, ovarian, uterine/endometrial, vaginal, and vulvar cancers differ in important ways. For example, their risk factors, symptoms, screening options, treatments, and survivorship challenges can vary.

And some of those differences have important implications for prevention, early detection, and outcomes:

  • Screening options are limited — and gaps remain. Of the five major gynecologic cancers, only cervical cancer has recommended screening tests for people at average risk. Yet new research shows that nearly one-third of women ages 21 to 29 have never been screened for cervical cancer. For the others, knowing the symptoms and your personal risk — and having concerns taken seriously — can be especially important.
  • Uterine cancer deaths are rising — and disparities persist. Uterine cancer is the most common gynecologic cancer in the U.S. and one of the relatively few cancers with a rising death rate. The death rate among Black women is nearly twice that of white women.
  • We’re not fully using the prevention tools we have. HPV vaccination can prevent more than 90% of cancers caused by HPV, including cervical, vaginal, and vulvar cancers. Yet only 62.9% of U.S. adolescents ages 13 to 17 were up to date on HPV vaccination in 2024, with coverage largely unchanged for three consecutive years.

“Through my journey, I’ve witnessed the disparities that keep too many people from receiving the care they deserve simply because gynecologic cancers are often uncomfortable to talk about,” Tiera says.

Breaking that silence — and ensuring more voices are heard — is central to Cervivor’s work this Gynecologic Cancer Awareness Month and every month.

From Stories to a Movement

Twenty-one years ago, Cervivor was founded on the belief that lived experience has power.

“One person sharing a story can help someone else feel less alone,” says Founder and Chief Visionary Tamika Felder, a 25-year cervical cancer survivor. “It can encourage someone to ask a question, recognize a symptom, schedule an appointment, challenge stigma, find support, or discover their own voice as an advocate.”

Over the years, Tamika’s voice has been joined by thousands of others across the Cervivor community. Together, their individual stories have become something even bigger: a movement.

For more than two decades, Cervivor has brought patients, survivors, advocates, healthcare professionals, and partners together to advance patient advocacy, including at the 2025 Cervical Cancer Summit Powered by Cervivor, Inc.

Tiera has seen that collective power firsthand.

“Working alongside advocates for all gynecologic cancers, I’ve seen what happens when our voices come together: We can change the narrative because every voice matters, every journey matters, and everyone deserves equitable, compassionate care.”

Five pillars will guide Cervivor’s work throughout GCAM 2026:

Putting the Pillars Into Action

All month long, Cervivor will offer opportunities to connect with the gynecologic cancer community, learn from trusted experts and resources, talk openly about survivorship and quality of life, and see advocacy in action.

Weekly GCAM activations will bring the campaign to life across Cervivor’s social channels:

The campaign will move through four weekly themes:

Week 1: Our Stories will celebrate the diverse experiences of patients, survivors, caregivers, and people living with metastatic disease.

Week 2: Learn Together will focus on gynecologic cancer education, symptoms, survivorship, and expert-led conversations.

Week 3: Community in Motion will spotlight advocates, healthcare professionals, partners, and community leaders turning awareness into action.

Week 4: Living Beyond Cancer will explore the realities that continue after diagnosis and treatment — including mental wellness, body image, pelvic health, intimacy, and long-term support.

More Ways to Connect During GCAM

As part of the broader conversation, Erin Sullivan Wagner of After Cancer will lead a free educational webinar (Sept. 24) on sexual health and quality of life after cancer — topics that profoundly affect survivors but are still too often left out of cancer care. 

Other Cervivor-supported educational and awareness events during GCAM include a webinar on cisplatin for cervical cancer treatment (Sept. 17) and the inaugural Cervical Cancer Patient Summit 2026 in La Jolla, CA (Sept. 19). The following day, the 2026 Race to End Women’s Cancer takes place in Washington, D.C. (Sept. 20). 

Connection and support will continue through Cervivor’s ongoing virtual meetups, including Creating Connections (Sept. 8), Cervivor Noir (Sept. 19), and Café con Leche (Sept. 19). 

Every Voice. Every Journey. Every Gynecologic Cancer.

One of the month’s biggest opportunities to put the GCAM theme “Our Stories. Our Movement.” into action is the Gynecologic Cancers Advocacy Retreat Powered by Cervivor School, September 24 to 27 in Scottsdale, AZ.

This year marks an important evolution for Cervivor School, expanding beyond cervical cancer to connect survivors from across the gynecologic cancer community for education and advocacy training.

In the lead-up to the retreat, we’ve been introducing some of the attendees whose experiences reflect the many ways people turn cancer into connection and action.

Among them is Kimberly Simmons Emory, a 20-year ovarian cancer survivor, author, advocate, and Interim Executive Director of the Georgia Ovarian Cancer Alliance. She’ll open as keynote speaker — her first Cervivor event.

Kimberly Simmons Emory


“What began as my own cancer journey eventually became part of my purpose,” Kimberly says. “I know what it feels like to hear the words ‘you have cancer,’ and I also know the power of information, community, support, and simply knowing you’re not walking through it alone.”

She hopes the retreat will bring “new ideas, different perspectives, and meaningful ways we can strengthen the gynecologic cancer community in Georgia and beyond.” 

The retreat will also feature experts and advocates leading conversations on gynecologic cancer awareness, research, patient advocacy, pelvic health, storytelling, grief, wellness, and life after treatment.

For the third year, Cervivor School alum Cindy Trice and KickIt Recovery Wear are funding a full scholarship for one patient or survivor to attend, covering travel, lodging, and tuition.

Reflecting on how Cervivor School changed her understanding of advocacy, Cindy recently wrote: “Your lived experience is expertise. Your voice belongs in the room. And it may be the voice that changes what happens next.”

That idea reflects what both the retreat and this year’s Gynecologic Cancer Awareness Month campaign are about: With the tools, support, and opportunities to use their voices, people can turn individual experiences into something bigger.

Cervivor School graduate Cindy (left) with founder Tamika. Cindy credits Cervivor School with helping her turn her lived experience into advocacy and action.

Awareness is Only the Beginning

Ultimately, GCAM — and this year’s “Our Stories. Our Movement.” theme — is an invitation to educate yourself and others, connect, speak up, and take action in ways both big and small: 

If gynecologic cancer has affected you personally, advocacy can take whatever form feels right for you. It doesn’t have to mean standing behind a microphone or traveling to Capitol Hill. Sometimes it begins simply by telling your story — or helping someone else know that theirs matters. 

Numbers help us understand the scale of gynecologic cancer. Stories help us understand its impact.

This September, we invite you to bring your story, your questions, your expertise, your support, and your voice.

Show Your Support for GCAM

Want to help spread the word? Add your photo to Cervivor’s GCAM 2026 Facebook profile frame. Then, share it with your community to raise awareness for gynecologic cancers and the people affected by them.

Create your GCAM 2026 profile photo.

Please do not delete/move/edit any existing parts of the design. Only plug in your photo into the center frame (second slide). If you need assistance, contact [email protected]

Latina Cervivor Stories: Changing the Narrative about Cervical Cancer in Hispanic Communities This Hispanic Heritage Month

By Kyle Minnis, Cervivor Communications Assistant

Each year, Hispanic Heritage Month (September 15 to October 15) honors the contributions and resilience of the more than 65 million Hispanic Americans who shape our nation’s culture, economy, and communities. It’s also an important opportunity to highlight persistent health disparities—particularly in cervical cancer prevention and treatment, which disproportionately affects Latina women.

Composite image of three Latina cervical cancer survivors with teal text: "LATINA SURVIVORS CHANGING THE NARRATIVE ON CERVICAL CANCER." The image highlights representation and advocacy for cervical cancer in Hispanic communities.

Latinas are 43% more likely to be diagnosed with cervical cancer than non-Hispanic white women, and their risk of dying from it is 25 to 50% higher, according to the American Cancer Society (ACS). They receive significantly fewer Pap tests and are less likely to follow up on abnormal results, reports the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Barriers to care include stigma and silence around “below-the-belt” cancers, language differences, insurance gaps, transportation challenges, and inflexible work schedules, all of which delay diagnosis and limit access to lifesaving interventions.

Patient navigators like Nancy Peña—Founder and Director of Navegación de Pacientes Internacional (NPI), which trains Spanish-speaking clinical advocates across the U.S. and Latin America—champion bilingual education and culturally competent care, explaining, “Native-language navigation improves informed consent, adherence, and satisfaction; reduces errors and no-shows; and honors dignity.”

Bilingual clinical patient navigator Nancy Peña spoke to attendees at the 2024 Cervical Cancer Summit.

HPV vaccine uptake among Hispanic youth and young adults also remains low. While 63% of U.S. adolescents ages 13 to 17 are up to date on the full series, Hispanic adults ages 18 to 26 lag behind: According to the latest National Health Interview Survey, only 36% had received at least one dose, and just 21.5% had completed the full series—far below the national goal of 80% two-dose completion by age 15.

As Cervivor has reported, in many traditional households—Hispanic or otherwise—the vaccine is still seen to promote promiscuity. “It’s so important to speak openly with our children about cervical cancer and the HPV vaccine,” says cervical cancer survivor Maritza Manjarrez, a Cervivor Español member who was raised in a Mexican family. “Vaccinating our youth doesn’t mean we’re giving them permission to have sex—it means we’re protecting them from a cancer that can develop later in life.”

Cervivor’s mission is to help eliminate cervical cancer while also lifting survivors from isolation, providing community and education, and empowering those affected to become advocates. This Hispanic Heritage Month, we celebrate our Latina community members—including Maritza, Dulcely Tavarez, Yvette Torres, and many more—by amplifying their stories and strength. Their voices demonstrate what it means to live beyond cervical cancer while advocating for health equity and compassion.

Maritza Manjarrez: Breaking the Silence

Maritza recently graduated from Cervivor School 2025.

“My cervical cancer journey has been especially difficult as a Latina. The stigma surrounding HPV and cervical cancer in our community has played a huge role in that,” says Maritza, who was diagnosed with metastatic squamous cell carcinoma at age 34. “Growing up Mexican meant you didn’t talk openly about topics like this. Keeping what was considered ‘private information’ to myself made it very hard to find help, support groups, or even basic information.”

That silence meant it took Maritza years to find Cervivor and feel comfortable sharing her story. “When asked what type of cancer I had, I felt a sense of shame and embarrassment to answer cervical cancer,” she recalls. “I believe this stigma plays a big role in the statistics. It makes me sad and worried, because if we don’t increase advocacy, these numbers are not going to change. Too many of our women are dying from this preventable disease.”

Dulcely Tavarez: Shattered Dreams, Renewed Fire

Dulcely Tavarez

Dulcely describes being in her early twenties, putting her own health last while caring for others, a struggle familiar to many Latinas. In April 2015, she finally saw a doctor about her irregular menstrual cycles, but was bounced between providers before receiving a cervical cancer diagnosis. “‘Later’ almost cost me everything. By the time I was diagnosed, the treatment I needed was life-saving but meant I could never carry a child.”

Dulcely’s family surrounded her with care and love, but it sometimes intensified her grief and isolation. “In our community, family and children are seen as such a natural part of life that it’s hard to explain the emptiness when that dream is taken away. Even when they were trying to comfort me, sometimes I felt alone in those emotions.”

She found healing in Cervivor. “When I looked for stories that reflected my own—young, Latina, facing cancer and fertility loss—I couldn’t find them. And that loneliness can be crushing. We need to see ourselves in these campaigns, in our own language, in ways that reflect our values and struggles. Representation is not just about visibility—it’s about saving lives and healing hearts.”

Thanks to her involvement with Cervivor, Dulcely became the first-ever recipient of the Cervivor Baby Gift Fund at this January’s 2025 Cervical Cancer Summit. The award supports cervical cancer survivors pursuing alternative paths to motherhood and accepts donations from $10 to $50,000.

Dulcely gets a hug—after receiving the first-ever Cervivor Baby Gift Fund—from Cervivor Founder and Chief Visionary Tamika Felder at the 2025 Cervical Cancer Summit.

Yvette Torres: From Shame to Advocacy

Yvette Torres

Yvette’s cancer journey began with an unsympathetic, unprofessional diagnosis. “The doctor asked, ‘Why did I wait so long?’ Still in shock, I did not answer that callous question,” she recalls. At 42, she and her husband had been hoping for another child so their youngest son could have a closer-in-age sibling—but that hope ended with a biopsy, performed on her son’s 4th birthday, that confirmed cervical cancer in 2013. She remembers the OB/GYN telling her it “didn’t look good,” that it was most likely cancer, and later saying it was a “good thing I already had two children,” since treatment would likely take away her chance to have more.

This cold medical treatment reinforced how stigma and cultural silence can delay women from seeking care. Yvette shares, “I hid. I felt ashamed. I didn’t want to talk about it because that’s what I learned growing up—we didn’t talk about below-the-belt issues. My mother did teach me the importance of going to the gynecologist. However, I did not feel comfortable talking about details, differences, or changes in my body.” Her experience echoes what many Cervivor Español members describe: how misconceptions about HPV, reluctance to discuss gynecologic cancers, and language barriers all contribute to lower screening and vaccination rates.

For Yvette, community was the turning point. “I found Cervivor during COVID, when isolation made everything feel even worse.” Through Cervivor Español, she gained the confidence to speak out in Spanish, even though she hadn’t grown up fluent, and now distributes bilingual prevention materials. “Now, I celebrate and embrace my Black and Hispanic identity by advocating for these communities and helping women not feel ashamed by sharing my story,” says Yvette, a 2023 Cervivor Champion and recent top Tell 20, Give 20 fundraiser, who also mobilized her students through a school workplace drive to spread awareness.

Yvette at work, where her story inspired colleagues to donate thousands to Cervivor’s Tell 20, Give 20 campaign.
Dulcely at last year’s Communities of Color Patient Advocacy Retreat, where she did outreach through Cervivor Cares.

Join the Movement to End Cervical Cancer Disparities in Hispanic Communities

Latinas make up 20% of the U.S. population, and their stories of surviving cancer, overcoming setbacks, and celebrating successes deserve to be heard—not just during Hispanic Heritage Month. Whether navigating care in a new language, confronting cultural silence around cancer, or redefining family and identity after treatment, Latina Cervivors show that community and compassion can transform what’s possible.

To help reduce cervical cancer diagnoses and improve outcomes for Hispanic individuals with a cervix, take action today by:

  • Sharing your Cervivor Story to put a face on a cancer that is too often hidden or hushed.

  • Supporting Cervivor’s 20th-year Tell 20, Give 20 campaign to fund culturally relevant programming and Cervivor Español support group (and sign up for next month’s event).

  • Advocating for bilingual programs—like Nancy Peña’s NPI patient navigators—that help create more equitable care pathways.

  • Championing advocacy groups such as the ACSí Se Puede Hispanic/Latino Advocacy Alliance, which amplify voices and expand access for Spanish-speaking communities.

  • Using your voice. If you speak Spanish—whether fluently or conversationally—you can support those facing language barriers. Talk with them about the life-saving benefits of HPV vaccination, regular screenings, and timely follow-ups.

Lastly, honor the voices of Maritza, Dulcely, and Yvette—and so many others—by making this Hispanic Heritage Month a catalyst for lasting change. As Dulcely reminds us:

“Please don’t wait. Don’t push your health to the bottom of the list the way I did… To the mothers—protect your children with the HPV vaccine. It’s an act of love. To my fellow women—know your worth, use your voice, and never stop fighting for answers.”

If you found this blog post helpful, please share it with friends or family members. You may just save a life. Questions? Contact us at [email protected].

About the Author

The image is a portrait of a young man with dark skin and short, curly black hair. He is wearing a blue collared shirt and black-framed glasses, and is smiling at the camera. The man has dark skin and short, curly black hair. His hair is cut close to his head, with a slight fade at the sides. His eyebrows are thick and well-groomed. He is wearing a blue collared shirt. The shirt is a medium blue color and appears to be made of a lightweight material. It has a relaxed fit and is buttoned up to the top. He is also wearing black-framed glasses. The frames are rectangular in shape and have a subtle curve at the temples. The lenses are clear and do not appear to have any tint or coating. The man is smiling at the camera. His smile is wide and genuine, showing off his white teeth. His eyes are crinkled at the corners, giving him a friendly and approachable appearance. The background of the image is a plain gray color. The gray is a medium tone, neither too light nor too dark. It provides a neutral backdrop that allows the subject to stand out. Overall, the image presents a friendly and approachable young man who appears to be confident and comfortable in front of the camera

Kyle Minnis is a senior studying Strategic Communications at the University of Kansas. He is currently serving as Cervivor’s Communications Assistant.