For Dr Irura, medicine came almost like a second skin. She is the Co-Founder of the Integrated Cancer Research Foundation (ICRF), Kenya, an NGO that aims to rid Africa of the cancer burden and become a leading cancer research organisation globally.
And, she is also a lecturer and cancer advocate.
“I am the CyberKnife head of unit at KUTRH. I am chief clinician at ICRF, and I also do a lot of awareness and cancer advocacy at my free time.”
Cancer knows nothing of modesty, and neither does grief, and so Dr Irura, never terribly interested in propriety to begin with, dug in.
"Cancer is a very aggressive disease. It is spreading faster than we think, and this awareness, prevention, de-stigmatizing, advocacy, this is how we win."
“To get here,” she says, “has taken me hard work, resilience, and really believing that we can eradicate some of the cancers that we see daily through awareness and teaching the community about screening.”
ICRF has been at the centre of research to unearth new insights in prevention of cancer and early diagnosis as well as build awareness on the deadly disease.
It is also offering screening in remote and underserved areas while offering health workers with expertise to deal with the terminal disease.
“Knowledge gained from research abstracts has triggered three to four-fold increase in HPV vaccine,” says Dr Irura.
“We have linked local staff to scholarships and currently there are physicists training in Oxford. They are gaining skills that is not locally available.”
She lists her career scalps: the first chair of the first scientific conference at KUTRH. Conducting two high-impact research biology conferences, the most recent last year.
“But what I am proud of most is our awareness drives, and I have done more than a dozen.”
“When I was younger, I was sure success is all about being a good doctor, the ability to cure, but with time, especially in oncology, I have learned that success is much broader. Success is also pegged on prevention of these diseases, advocating for our patients, improving healthcare structures, and good quality and dignity to our patients because, unfortunately, in our country, most of the patients are already in stage three and four.”
With a Master’s degree in Clinical Oncology and Nuclear Medicine from Alexandria University, Egypt, Dr Irura just doesn’t know how to give up, hoping to eradicate cervical cancer in Kenya by 2030.
“Cancer is a very aggressive disease. It is spreading faster than we think, and this awareness, prevention, de-stigmatizing, advocacy, this is how we win.”
–Eddy Ashioya