Mrs Daniela Daritkova-Prodanova, MP for Bulgaria & Member of the Parliamentary Healthcare Committee, Mrs. Daniela Pantova, Head of Cabinet for the Minister of Health of Bulgaria and Mr Trifon Neshkov, Health Attaché in the Permanent Representation of Bulgaria to the EU, receive the Pearl of Wisdom Award from Mrs Marian Harkin MEP for the ‘STOP and GO for a Check-Up’ program. This program is a nationwide effort with the objective of improving the infrastructure, increasing the capacity and preparing the society for the establishment of population-based screening programmes for cervical, breast and colorectal cancers. To date, the project has 1) launched an educational campaign to raise awareness among the general public about screening for cervical, breast and colorectal cancers, 2) provided 50,000 Pap smears, 50,000 FOB tests and 200,000 mammograms, and 3) started the establishment of a national screening registry.

The Vice-Prime Minister for the Republic of Croatia, Ms Đurđa Adlešič, and the delegation from Croatia receive the Pearl of Wisdom Award from Mrs Marian Harkin MEP for the “All For Her” campaign. The primary objective of this project was to educate women about cervical and breast cancer prevention with a particular focus on the most disadvantaged women leaving in smaller Croatian cities that are known to have a higher risk for these cancers. A second objective of the campaign was to raise funds to establish the Support Centre for Women with Cancer where they will be able to receive psychological counselling, health education, etc. to help them through their treatments.

Dr Atila Čengeri, Secretary of Health and Dr Zdravko Kosjerina, Deputy Secretary of Health for the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, Dr Petar Novakovic, Chief of Gynaecology and Dr Jelka  Rajovic, Gynaecologic Oncologist from the Oncology Institute of Vojvodina, and Dr Snezana Pantich Aksentijevic, Advisor to the Serbian Ministry of Health, receive the Pearl of Wisdom Award for the DECENA cervical cancer screening pilot program. This program was undertaken to evaluate the requirements for implementing an organised cervical cancer screening programme in AP Vojvodina and to start putting in place the elements required for its full-scale introduction including a database of examined women, effective communication channels between the various facilities and healthcare professionals, CME programmes for healthcare professionals and educational programmes for the general public.

Mr Niall Behan, Chief Executive and Ms Meghan Doherty, Policy & Advocacy Officer, Irish Family Planning Association receive the Peal of Wisdom Award from Mrs Marian Harkin MEP for the Irish Cervical Cancer Prevention Awareness and Advocacy Campaigns that they ran during the Cervical Cancer Prevention Weeks in 2008 and 2009. These advocacy campaigns were implemented to raise awareness of cervical cancer prevention amongst women living in Ireland and to advocate for the implementation of a high quality, national cervical cancer prevention programme that would include public health education, cervical cancer screening and HPV vaccination to maximise reductions in cervical cancer rates in Ireland.

Mr Eugeniusz Grzeszczak, Secretary of State for the Republic of Poland, Prof Marek Spaczynski, Chief Executive, National Coordinating Centre for the Population-Based Cervical Cancer Screening Program, and the Polish delegation receive the Pearl of Wisdom Award from Dr Philip Davies for the implementation and development of a national organised population-based cervical cancer screening program in Poland. This award is being given to reward the work of Prof Marek Spaczynski, his colleagues at the National Coordinating Centre and his colleagues in the 16 Regional Coordinating Centers and to acknowledge their recognition of the importance of population-based, organised cervical cancer screening together with good public health education and quality control at all levels of the program. The award also acknowledges their determination to stick to their plan for this program in the face of numerous obstacles, and the many hours of hard work that has been put into this project and that have moved the project forward to the stage it is at today.

Prof Vitor Veloso, President of the Portuguese League Against Cancer (2005-2009) receives the Pearl of Wisdom Award from Ms Edite Estrela MEP for the “Passa a Palavra” public education campaign. The primary objective of the “Passa a Palavra” campaign was to educate young women about the importance of cervical cancer prevention through a mobile exhibition that served as the centre for a wide range of educational activities. The road show visited ten universities seeing a combined total of 33,812 students that participated in the educational activities.

Dr Teuta Agai Demjaha, Advisor to the Minister of Health, Mrs Liljana Popovska, Member of Parliament for the Republic of Macedonia & Chair Committee for Equal Opportunities of Men and Women, Mrs Neda Milevska-Kostova, Executive Director of the Macedonian Centre for Regional Policy Research and Cooperation 'Studiorum', Prof Jovan Tofoski, President of the Macedonian Medical Association and Mrs Vera Zlateva, President of the Women's Organization of Sveti Nikole receive the Pearl of Wisdom Award from Mrs Edite Estrela MEP for the Progressive Implementation of an Organised Cervical Cancer Prevention Program in Macedonia. The main objective of this project was to initiate the implementation a modern cervical cancer prevention programme that effectively combines organised cervical cancer screening with a population-based HPV vaccination programme for the women of Macedonia in a phased but steadily progressive fashion.

Dr François-Xavier Leandri, Prof Helene Sancho-Garnier and Prof Lucien Piana receive the Pearl of Wisdom Award from Mrs Edite Estrela MEP for the ARCADES project to investigate methods to extend cervical cancer screening to lower socioeconomic groups and minorities in the Marseille region. The primary objective of this project is to investigate methods to increase the cervical screening participation rate in women aged 25-69 from lower socioeconomic groups, minorities and immigrant groups, to evaluate the impact on compliance of using vaginal self-sampling with HPV testing in women aged 35-69 who have not responded to 2 Pap-test invitations, and to evaluate the feasibility and quality of vaginal self-sampling as a tool for cervical cancer screening in this population.

Dr Florian Nicula, Head, Epidemiology and Biostatistics and Ms Luciana Neamtiu, Researcher, Oncological Institute ‘‘I. Chiricuta’’, Cluj-Napoca receive the Pearl of Wisdom award from Dr Philip Davies for the implementation of the of the Cluj regional pilot organised cervical cancer screening program. In this project, Dr Florian Nicula and his colleagues were able to implement many of the of key elements of the infrastructure needed for a population based cervical cancer screening programme. Although much remains to be done, substantial progress has been achieved with screening coverage increased from <1% to 20% in Cluj County and similar improvements seen in the other 5 districts covered by the project. Importantly, this project was able to identify and resolve many barriers to the implementation of a screening program and therefore represents an excellent ‘proven in Romania’ model that now needs to be progressively expanded to cover other areas of Romania.

Mrs Mihaela Geoana, President of the Renasterea Foundation and Ms Catalina Stefania Negara, PR Specialist for the Renasterea Foundation receive the Pearl of Wisdom Award from Mrs Marian Harkin for the Renasterea Breast and cervical Cancer Mobile Screening Unit. The objectives of the Breast and Cervical Cancer Mobile Screening Unit were to bring free-of-charge breast and cervical cancer screening to women living in rural, peri-urban and low-income communities where these services are either not available or their uptake is low. In addition, the project aimed to raise awareness among women in the general public about the causes of breast and cervical cancers and of the importance of breast and cervical cancer screening. The project has been very successful in providing free-of-charge 6,500 medical investigations, 5,900 Pap tests and 3,400 mammograms to the populations served, and in providing a model for the implementation of mobile services that could complement a national breast and cervical cancer screening program.