Sanesha Naicker is a renowned, humble, inspirational, spiritual South Africa based pioneer in the field of breast cancer research who made history globally as a strong advocate for health, the advancement of innovative medical solutions and improvement of quality of life recently.
She was recognised as the first South African, first Indian, and first globally to be awarded for her work on breast cancer in young women.
The award aimed to acknowledge the global work and recognise the invaluable contribution and achievement of those who improved the lives of others without asking for recognition, to recognise those who go above and beyond for their patients and customers striving to offer relief and reassurance in places where traditional medicine cannot.
Over the years she has won a number of awards, including the prestigious International Journal of Palliative Nursing Awards 2015, in collaboration with Macmillan Cancer Support, which celebrated achievement and excellence in the work of palliative care nurses and other members of the multidisciplinary team.
The large project which won this award was one she embarked on this award-winning research study as part of her master’s / doctorate project, focusing on young women with breast cancer which she developed from scratch on her own.
During the research, she encountered numerous stumbling blocks, such as walking the streets in heat, rain and cold, in remote villages and even facing death at one stage.
More recently Sanesha won International Woman of the Year and Leading Woman of the Year for 2018 at the Divas of Colour 2018 awards. The award honoured women of diverse colour across the globe
Such successes, alongside her win in the 2019 Alternative Medicine & Holistic Health Awards, hosted by the internationally renowned GHP Magazine, has proven Sanesha’s dedication to her research and the lengths at which Sanesha has gone to change the course of the global cancer treatment market.
Previously GHP awarded her a Private Health Award in 2017, naming her Best Young Woman Breast Cancer Care Specialist Researcher South Africa.
Naicker was also selected as the only south African one in 100 to attend the medical oncology breast cancer training program conference in Europe in 2014, 2015 and 2017.
Always excelling in research with nothing less than distinction, she was inspired to fulfil her late grandmother Angela wish to show the world her potential. This was accompanied by the fact her late grandmother had a cardiovascular disease and some of her friend died of breast cancer and did not know they had the disease. There had been various campaigns highlighting breast cancer, however none were aimed at young women.
Young women are often poorly informed about breast cancer and early detection. Early detection, screening, risk reduction treatment and management are important. This was the driving force which got her to research the illness
In the future Sanesha hopes to be a strong advocate for health, medical science and research and one day build her own clinic for the underprivileged and improve health promotion and care, patient advocacy, find cures and health awareness in South African communities and beyond. This ambitious focus will help drive her to even greater success in the breast cancer research space over the years ahead.
Ultimately, thanks to her dedication and hard work, Sanesha’s work has helped improve healthcare within her country and to provided researchers and cancer
specialists all around the world with the new information and the insight into breast cancer.
Naicker attributes her achievement to God, her parents Don and Radha, her late grandmother and grandfathers, her living grandmother, brothers, sister in laws, nieces and nothing less than sheer hard work.
