Beauty Influencer Jessica Pettway’s Death Bringing Awareness To Cervical Cancer

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — With more than 200,000 subscribers on Youtube, Jessica Pettway was a prominent Youtube and beauty influencer. 

However,  at 36 she was diagnosed with stage three cervical cancer. 

She shared the news in a post  on Instagram also sharing she learned she had cervical cancer after being misdiagnosed with fibroids.

“Cervical cancer is preventable. No one should die from cervical cancer in this day and age,” Dr. Jubilee Brown said. 

Dr. Jubilee Brown, an ob-gyn with Atrium Health Levine Cancer Institute said  Pettway’s death is one that could have been prevented. 

“Its actually one of the only cancers that we have really excellent prevention for.” 

 Dr. Brown said cervical cancer is largely preventable through the HPV vaccine as well as regular wellness visits and pap tests with a gynecologist. 

 Despite the vaccine and screening black women like Pettway are still  almost one and half times more likely to die of cervical cancer than white women.

  Brown said that’s why regular screenings for HPV… the sexually transmitted infection that causes the cancer are so important and can also prevent a  misdiagnosis like Pettway’s which can be deadly. 

“Occasionally you can have a large cervical cancer inside the cervix that gets misdiagnosed as a fibroid uterus. Its pretty unusual that that happens and actually with appropriate screening like pap testing and seeing your gynecologists every year that just shouldn’t happen,” Brown said. 

 Pettway described having intense bleeding that was misdiagnosed as fibroids.

 Black women are diagnosed with fibroids roughly three times as frequently as white women, and while the symptoms can be similar Brown said it’s important to know the difference between fibroids which are benign and cervical cancer. 

“I think it’s important for women, especially black women with fibroids not to just assume that this bleeding is from their fibroid uterus,” Brown said. 

Brown said the best advice is to keep up with yearly wellness checks and immediately see your doctor if you have abnormal symptoms.