Photo courtesy Robert Hood / Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
When Seattle oncologist Corey Casper landed in Uganda in 2004, he was greeted by an orange sun rising over Lake Victoria, the smoky haze wafting from Kampala’s charcoal stoves—and a dilapidated cancer hospital that predated Idi Amin. Hundreds of patients queued in the dirt, hoping to lie two or three to a bed on bare metal frames. “I thought, This is not like any place I’ve ever seen,” remembers Casper.
There was only one cancer physician in the entire country, yet cancer killed more Ugandans than HIV, malaria, and tuberculosis combined. So even before the Global Oncology program had a proper name, Casper began bringing African physicians to Seattle for training. Now part of Fred Hutch’s worldwide treatment and research program, Global Oncology has nearly doubled Uganda’s Burkitt lymphoma survival rate from 30 percent to 55 percent in two years. This May GO helped open a $10 million state-of-the-art cancer center in Kampala, where patients still line up—but now for meaningful, effective treatment. And for the 16 newly trained physicians who have returned to Uganda, says Casper, “They tell me how wonderful it can be to practice oncology and be able to save your patients.”
1Corey Casper, with his staff and researchers at the Uganda Cancer Institute in Kampala, spearheads life-saving efforts against Burkitt lymphoma.
Courtesy Robert Hood / Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
2Corey Casper, with his staff and researchers at the Uganda Cancer Institute in Kampala, spearheads life-saving efforts against Burkitt lymphoma.
Courtesy Robert Hood / Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
3Head nurse Sister Allen at the Uganda Cancer Institute in Kampala, Uganda on July, 22, 2014.
Courtesy Robert Hood / Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
4Head nurse Sister Allen at the Uganda Cancer Institute in Kampala, Uganda on July, 22, 2014.
Courtesy Robert Hood / Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
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Courtesy Robert Hood / Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
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Courtesy Robert Hood / Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
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Courtesy Robert Hood / Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
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Courtesy Robert Hood / Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
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Courtesy Robert Hood / Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
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Courtesy Robert Hood / Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
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Courtesy Robert Hood / Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
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Courtesy Robert Hood / Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
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Courtesy Robert Hood / Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
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Courtesy Robert Hood / Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
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Courtesy Robert Hood / Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
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Courtesy Robert Hood / Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
Since joining Seattle Met in 2011, Allison Williams has overseen the magazine’s travel and outdoor coverage, including deep dives into Olympic National Park, the Columbia River, and a Burger King drive-thru in Canada. She edits the travel-focused blog Tripster and contributes service, news, interview, and narrative pieces to the magazine, including long-form features about mountain mysteries and puppies in prison. She’s earned awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and been nominated for a City and Regional Magazine award.
Allison was raised here in Olympia and studied writing at Duke University, Oxford University, Columbia Journalism School, and University of Alaska. She began her career in New York City in the newsrooms of Metro newspaper and Time Out New York, then hightailed it back to her native habitat so she could write guidebooks and climb mountains.
