COMING SOON… “Enough: Because we can stop cervical cancer” book
(January 2024, Cambridge University Press)
Enough
We can end cervical cancer
Putting an end to cervical cancer
My name is Linda Eckert, and I’m an obstetrician gynecologist based at the University of Washington in Seattle. I have met with and cared for women in clinics all over the world. Watching suffering is hard; knowing that some of the suffering I’ve seen may be preventable is tragic.
I’ve written a book for women and those who love them, about preventing cervical cancer—a cancer that’s 99 percent preventable, yet steals hundreds of thousands of lives a year. It’s called “Enough: Because we can stop cervical cancer.” The book will be published by Cambridge University Press, expected in January of 2024.
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Introduction
Enough
Because We Can Stop Cervical Cancer
Cervical cancer kills almost 350,000 women each year. What’s more horrifying, is that millions have died of this disease that’s nearly 100% preventable. It’s no secret that healthcare is full of inequities, with a severe lack of accessible screening programs. But women’s health care is also impeded by cultural, gender, and political barriers, issues that have combined to create devastating consequences.
A leading expert in cervical cancer prevention, Dr Linda Eckert takes her years of experience and weaves it together with the voices of the courageous women who use their own experience of cervical cancer to advocate for change. This heart-breaking, yet hopeful, book takes you through the world of cervical cancer with evidence-based information, personal stories and actionable outcomes. Society flourishes when women have access to safe and affordable healthcare. Together we can make this need a reality and eliminate the world’s most preventable cancer.
Project Origin
Words are Powerful
While writing academic papers is a longstanding part of my medical career, this book springs from a different, very personal place. Six years ago, my then 19-year-old son was severely injured in a car accident that took the lives of three dear friends as well. During my son’s long recovery from multiple injuries, including severe brain trauma, I started a blog to keep friends and family apprised of his condition. Writing my story became a powerful processing tool for me, a way to explore grief and the randomness of loss, and to celebrate healing. Personal narrative writing lit a fire inside me. I witnessed firsthand the power of stories to speak to what matters.
Cervical cancer matters. Women matter.
Now, I am following a new calling. I am working on a nonfiction book that allows women and those who love them, through the power of their own voices and personal stories, to ask these questions: Why does this preventable cancer continue to impact over half a million women a year? How can we stop this needless suffering and death?
I believe that as we speak about women and celebrate their roles in their families, communities, and society, this book can testify and be a collective witness to the impact of cervical cancer. Your voice and the power of story will lead readers to join us in saying “Enough.”
Enough deaths from cervical cancer.
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About
Dr. Linda Eckert
Dr. Linda Eckert is a board-certified obstetrician and gynecologist and an internationally recognized expert in immunizations and cervical cancer prevention. She has worked as a consultant with the World Health Organization on global cancer prevention for the last fifteen years, facilitating policy development for the HPV vaccine and cervical cancer screening. She is a professor of obstetrics and gynecology with an Infectious Disease Fellowship at University of Washington’s Departments of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Global Health. For over thirty years, Dr. Eckert has worked at Seattle’s Harborview Hospital, the largest public hospital in the Pacific Northwest, serving people from all over the globe who represent a broad spectrum of economic means and disease symptoms.
Dr. Eckert has recently been in the national spotlight for her expertise regarding HPV vaccination and COVID-19 vaccines in pregnancy, including being interviewed on NPR’s Here & Now, a syndicated radio news show with five million listeners. She has been interviewed and quoted in more than thirty national publications, ranging from Bloomberg and Politico to Glamour and Mother Jones, done countless radio and television interviews about COVID-19 vaccines, and written for the Los Angeles Times on the subject.
Dr. Eckert also serves on the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ACOG) Expert Immunization Committee, is the ACOG Liaison to CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, and was the obstetrics lead for the Global Alignment of Immunization Safety in Pregnancy Program. She was a research investigator for COVID-19 and RSV vaccines in pregnancy and HPV vaccines in individuals living with HIV. Her areas of clinical expertise include infections in women, vaccines, vulvar disease, cervical cancer screening, and cross-cultural medicine. She is the author of more than eighty peer-reviewed research articles appearing in journals such as the New England Journal of Medicine and the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Please keep in touch or reach out with any questions you may have about this project.