Genet was told she would die

The International Atomic Energy Agency is warns that unless better screening and treatment facilities are made available, millions of lives will be lost across the developing world.

Genet developed cervical cancer when she was just 34 years old - but she was one of the few lucky ones.

Her condition was picked up in time for radiation therapy to be effective.

Genet decided to seek medical after she began to feel sick all the time.

She went to a regional hospital in Ethiopia's southern city of Awasa, where, four months after she had first noticed her health problem, she was diagnosed with invasive cervical cancer.

Doctors told her that she had less than two years to live without treatment - leaving her two young sons without a mother.

In July 2001, Genet boarded a bus in Awasa and travelled 300 kilometres (190) north to the capital Addis Ababa.

She had been referred by her local hospital to Dr Bogale Solomon, director of the Black Lion Hospital Radiotherapy Department.

The centre opened in 1997, and in its first four years it has treated 1,300 patients.

The number of patients treated per month has grown steadily - and so has the waiting list.

Daily doses

Seven days after Genet began her 30-day treatment, the symptoms that alerted doctors to her condition stopped.

She has now joined a group of patients, mostly other women, who attend the clinic daily as outpatients.

These patients are exposed to small doses of radiation, lasting one to two minutes - a process known as fractionation - which best spares healthy cells.

The treatment entails directing multiple beams of radiation from outside the body at the tumour.

The radiotherapy machine being used is Chinese-made and its radioactive source is cobalt-60 - first used therapeutically 50 years ago.

Dr Bogale, Ethiopia's sole radiation oncologist, says her chances are good.

"Although her disease was too advanced to be operated on, she's an early case.

"The cancer hadn't spread out of the pelvis region."

Women make up about 70% of the patients at the centre - and one third of them have cervical cancer.

Infection to blame

The incidence of cervical cancer is high all across sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and Asia.

Its proliferation has been blamed on infection with the human papilloma virus (HPV), which is thought to thrive in conditions of poor hygiene linked to poverty.

Recently, the spread of HIV may have also increased the risk of getting cervical cancer.

Unfortunately, many of the patients referred to the Black Lion Hospital are not diagnosed until the disease is far advanced.

Nevertheless Dr Bogale said 50% of patients treated there four years ago are still alive.