Six years ago, Christine Baze was completely unaware that her doctor was using a nonliquid pap test that was inaccurate up to 50% of the time. Young, married, vegetarian and a nonsmoker, Christine’s profile was the exact opposite of a typical cervical cancer patient’s. But at 31-years-old, Baze was diagnosed with aggressive cervical cancer. “I’m the girl that did everything right,” she says. “My story is one people hear and they go ‘No way.’ That’s why education and empowering women is so important.”

Because Christine’s cancer was already in advanced stages, she had to undergo a hysterectomy, pelvic radiation, four treatments of chemotherapy, four treatments of internal radiation and macroscopic surgery to remove part of her fallopian tubes and pelvic lymph nodes. Today Christine is 37, healthy, and is the founder of Pop Smear, a nonprofit organization that organizes concert benefits to raise money and awareness to fight cervical cancer. “I am one of the lucky ones that I didn’t lose my life to this disease, but I will not have children,” she says. “I have side effects from this disease that still affect me today. I’m [always] looking over my shoulder and [thinking] maybe if it came back this time, I wouldn’t be so lucky.”