A Breast Cancer App Is Saving Lives in Pakistan

However, in Pakistan, the problem is made worse by a lack of awareness and by deep-rooted cultural beliefs, explains Lalani, who conducted an awareness camp in Machar Colony — one of Karachi’s most impoverished neighborhoods. She found that half of the women didn’t have phones, and almost all had little to no knowledge of breast cancer, with many believing it to be contagious.

Lalani soon realized that technology alone wouldn’t be enough in Pakistan, where digital literacy is low and widespread fears surrounding breast cancer persist. Real change, she knew, would require face-to-face engagement.

To address this, she developed a hybrid model that blends community outreach with app-based training. This includes partnering with existing door-to-door family planning campaigns and training women health workers to incorporate breast cancer awareness into their visits. These workers educate women about the disease, help them download the app and show them how to use it to monitor their breast health.

“In rural Pakistan, one phone is often used between five or six family members. Women usually share their phones with their husbands. That’s why there’s a gap in app downloads between rural and urban areas. Without this hybrid approach, we might not even get 1,000 downloads instead of 10,000,” says Lalani. “The only way to bridge this gap is by working closely with NGOs to reach more people on the ground. That’s why we combined our app pilot with medical camps, and it’s already helped many women.”

Forty-year-old Shazia (whose name has been changed to protect her identity) from Mithi in Sindh province was among the participants at one of Lalani’s medical camps and was excited to learn how to check for signs of breast cancer herself. “The PinkDetect app has helped us a lot. There’s hardly any awareness here, and women are very shy. Plus, seeing a doctor is so expensive. Through the app, we learned how to do self-exams. Now we check ourselves every three weeks,” she says.

Shazia shares that one woman in her neighborhood found a lump using the app’s guidance and sought medical attention right away. “It wasn’t cancer, but the doctor said it was good she came early. That gave other women the confidence to speak up and take their health seriously.”

To date, PinkDetect says it has reached 25,000 women through its app, medical camps, training sessions and focus groups. But reaching more women has been fraught with challenges, according to Arshia Jahangir, president of the NGO Humanity Initiative. She has worked on five camps with PinkDetect and found that many camps didn’t have Wi-Fi to download the app, and women were often reluctant to talk about cancer. However, surveys from the camps showed that the results were positive, especially in addressing a lot of the myths and misconceptions about breast cancer. 

Jahangir also explained that the women showed a great eagerness to learn more about self-exams. More than 50 women attended a health camp conducted in Karachi’s Agra Taj in December 2023, and medical students volunteering with the NGO successfully found two positive breast lumps. 

According to a survey conducted in November 2023 at a camp in Machar Colony, Karachi, 96.1 percent of the 51 participants reported feeling more confident about performing a breast self-examination. 

“At our last camp in October [2024], 100 women came, and we talked only about breast cancer,” recalls Jahangir. “Three of the women there were survivors. After the session, we asked them to share their stories. They stood up and told us about the hard times they faced, how hard it was to get diagnosed, not knowing where to go, and feeling scared to talk about it. Seeing them speak in front of everyone was very inspiring. It helped break the silence around this issue. We even gave them tokens of appreciation, but the most important thing was that we started an open conversation.” 

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As a Western Union Foundation fellow in 2023, Lalani learned how to scale technology to support early breast cancer detection. Drawing on insights from her training and app rollout, PinkDetect now aims to reach 100,000 women through grassroot efforts and app downloads in 2025, gradually shifting from a hybrid to a tech-driven model.

In-person outreach, Lalani has learned, is a good way to build connections, but after those connections are established, the work can continue through the app. “How many villages can we visit? The goal is to reach as many communities as possible within a year or two, and then rely more on technology to build a self-sustaining tool, one that ensures every woman, regardless of income, location or stigma, has the knowledge, tools and support to take charge of her breast health and detect cancer early,” she says.

The post A Breast Cancer App Is Saving Lives in Pakistan appeared first on Reasons to be Cheerful.

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