SurviGals – Craft Artists & NTU Students Team Up Against Cervical Cancer

Eight local craft artists have designed limited edition products in collaboration with a cervical cancer screening campaign called SurviGals Screening to support the fight against cervical cancer.

SurviGals – Participating Local Craft Artists

The local craft artists, who include WhereBilly, goodbyejohanna, Ally Crafts Co, Fang’s Flamingo, Lithops Studio and mori, double Q and Fedorexletters have launched their products on their own Instagram pages and websites.

Ms Qianyi Yin, the paper quilling artist of double Q, said, “ I decided to participate in this collaboration because I hope more women would understand that cervical cancer is one of the most preventable cancer in the world and that they would act today by getting screened.” 

SurviGals – Initiative Led By NTU Students

SurviGals Screening is led by four students from the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information in Nanyang Technological University (NTU). The team, which comprises Ms Beverley Pek, Ms Letazia Chia, Ms Sarah Ng and Ms Valery Tan, partnered with Singapore Cancer Society to launch this campaign in Singapore.

The campaign targets women aged 25 to 34 years old. The team decided to tap on their target audience’s interest in locally-made crafts such as clay earrings and pouch organisers to raise awareness of cervical cancer screening in a unique way.

Ms Brenda Tan, the craft artist behind WhereBilly, designed and created polymer clay earrings using the clay renditions of the cervix and vulva. Her products, which were launched on 10 February, sold out in less than a few hours.

“ I agreed to the collaboration because I think the message of the campaign is important. I believe that it is important for women to gain awareness about cervical cancer so that we can stay healthy for ourselves and our loved ones. Most of my customers are females, and I am happy to be able to spread this awareness to them through this collaboration,” said Ms Brenda Tan.

Inspired by WhereBilly’s collection, Ms Joanne Sim decided to share her own experience of getting cervical cancer at an early stage in an Instagram post, “I want to be here for my son, to watch him grow up. I want to grow old with my two men and my family. That’s why I get myself checked, and take better care of myself,” said Ms Sim, who found out she had pre-cancer at the age of 24.

The team hopes that SurviGals Screening will ultimately make Singapore a cervical cancer-free society as it is the most preventable cancer. This sentiment is echoed by Dr Adeline Seow, an Associate Professor at Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health at National University of Singapore (NUS). “Although cervical cancer ranks tenth out of the common cancers in Singapore, one death is a death too many,” she said.