It’s a message that Longueuil Mayor Catherine Fournier has taken to heart.
“It’s unfair. She should have her life ahead of her,” the mayor said of her close friend and colleague, political advisor Julie-Anne Cimon.
On Thursday, Fournier took to Instagram to honour Cimon, who was diagnosed with cervical cancer in 2024 and is now living her final days. Fournier says she’s heartbroken knowing the cancer “could have been avoided.”
“When you don’t get an HPV vaccine, you have a very high chance to get HPV,” Fournier explained, adding “[Cimon] really wanted [...] that the dramatic story that she’s going through serve at least to prevent others.”
HPV - or human papillomavirus - is the root cause of many types of cancer, including cancers of the cervix, rectum and throat. According to the Canadian Cancer Society, roughly 75 per cent of those who are sexually active will contract some form of HPV.
Gerald Bronfman Department of Oncology Chair, Dr. Lucy Gilbert, says a severe diagnosis in 34-year-olds like Cimon - or even younger patients - is more common than one might think.
“When it’s advanced and we give chemotherapy, all we are doing is buying a little bit of time with toxicity, which is side effects. And then they die,” Gilbert said.
Gilbert says the vaccine is the best way to prevent HPV-derived cancers with its efficacy rate of nearly 100 per cent.
The vaccine has been offered to girls in fourth and ninth grade since 2008. In 2014, boys in the same grades were added to the program.
It’s also currently available free of charge for eligible individuals in the province of Quebec.
Those who wish can book an appointment through Clic Santé, as Fournier has now done herself.
“I really wanted to take action while Julie-Anne is still conscious. She’s still watching TV and her mother told me yesterday night that she’s been looking at the interviews that I gave and that she was very peaceful,” said the Longueuil mayor.
Fournier says she’ll do everything she can to get the message out and save others some peace of mind.
