Lynette Denny

Lynette Ann Denny GCOB FRCOG (30 January 1958 – 9 June 2024) was a South African gynaecologic oncologist who specialised in the prevention of cervical cancer in low-resource settings. She worked at the University of Cape Town throughout her career.

At the university, Denny was a specialist physician at the Groote Schuur Hospital, the head of the obstetrics and gynaecology department, and the founding director of the South African Medical Research Council Gynaecological Cancer Research Centre. However, she was best known for her role in founding and running the Khayelitsha Cervical Cancer Screening Project in Khayelitsha, Cape Town, where she conducted community-based research on low-cost alternatives to pap smears.

Early life and education Denny was born on 30 January 1958 in Pretoria, then part of South Africa's Transvaal Province. She grew up in Durban with four siblings. As a child she was influenced by her perception of the injustices of apartheid,

After high school, she moved to Cape Town to study medicine at the University of Cape Town (UCT). Afterwards, while in practice, she completed an MMed in 1994 and a PhD in obstetrics and gynaecology in 2000.

After her retirement in April 2022, Denny remained at the UCT Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology as professor with responsibility for special projects. She was also chief specialist at Groote Schuur until her death. She said that she had become interested in such work during her subspecialty training at Groote Schuur, where she had often seen black women suffer from preventible advanced cervical cancers because of inadequate screening.

Over the next 20 years the project moved to permanent premises and became an established health centre, receiving funding from the American National Institutes of Health, among others. Towards the end of her career, her research group also incorporated artificial intelligence into screening methods. In South African policymaking, she was involved in the Thuthuzela Care Centres initiative and in the drafting of the first comprehensive South African protocol for the treatment of rape survivors. the president of the International Gynecologic Cancer Society from 2012 to 2014, she was appointed by the International Atomic Energy Agency as an international expert to advise on the development of Botswana's national cancer control programme. Honours At an early stage of her career, in 2004, Denny was admitted to the Order of the Disa by Marthinus van Schalkwyk, the Premier of the Western Cape. In the same year she received the inaugural Shoprite–Checkers–SABC2 South African Women of the Year award in the category of science and technology, British Society for Colposcopy and Cervical Pathology's 2014 Founders' Medal, the Cancer Association of South Africa's 2015 Oettle Memorial Medal, the 2015 International Federation of Gynaecology and Obstetrics Award, the International Gynecologic Cancer Society's 2016 Global Humanitarian Award for "community advancement in resource-limited settings",'''

On 10 November 2021, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that Denny would be admitted to the Order of the Baobab in Silver for her contribution to obstetrics. She received the award in a ceremony on 18 November. On 10 August 2022, the day after Women's Day, UCT's Faculty of Health Sciences hosted a special thanksgiving celebration in Denny's honour, with speakers including the Health Sciences Dean, Lionel Green-Thompson, and UCT Vice-Chancellors Mamokgethi Phakeng and Mamphela Ramphele. Later that year, in November, she received the South African Society of Obstetrics and Gynaecology's Lifetime Achievement Award.