When Nigerian paediatrician Zainab Shinkafi-Bagudu saw Gloria in Abuja, the young breast cancer patient was hospitalized after the disease spread to her bones and lungs. At a cancer conference in Hong Kong last month, Gloria was walking with a stick because of cancer in her hips, but attended sessions, described her experience and advocated for other patients.
Bagudu, president-elect of the Union for International Cancer Control, will become the organization’s first African leader. The conference drew more than 2,000 attendees from 124 countries, as cancer cases and deaths are projected to rise sharply, with the largest increases expected in poorer nations.
Her work in Nigeria has included founding the Medicaid Cancer Foundation, helping establish Kebbi state’s first cancer-control plan and registry between 2015 and 2023, and expanding awareness and treatment access for vulnerable patients. She also campaigned for cervical cancer prevention, including Nigeria’s introduction of a single-dose HPV vaccine into routine immunization in 2023.
Bagudu became a senior adviser to Nigeria’s coordinating minister of health and social welfare in 2024, with responsibilities including women’s health and cancer advocacy. Internationally, she plans to support a proposal for a cancer financing platform modeled partly on the Global Fund for AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, which would seek resources from governments, donors and other sources for prevention, diagnosis and treatment.