BPW Woman of Excellence - Dr Jennifer Mamby-Alexander

Mrs Gloria Langrin, Founding Member of BPW St Andrew presents the Mavis Watts Award
 to the phenomenal Dr Jennifer Mamby-Alexander.

by Jean Lowrie-Chin

Observer column published for MON 2 July 2018

When the youthful Dr Jennifer Mamby-Alexander stood up to accept the 2018 Mavis Watts Award from the Business & Professional Women’s Club (BPW) of St. Andrew a week ago, no one would guess that she had been diagnosed with Stage 4 breast cancer 32 years ago.  Dr Mamby-Alexander has used her experience and triumph to encourage others in their fight against the disease. 

One story she shared in her acceptance speech, shows you the resolve and grit of this woman.  Accepting an invitation to be guest speaker at a function in Nigeria, she packed three suitcases with copies her book, “A Practical Guide to Coping with Cancer” to donate to ladies who had invited her.  When she arrived at the British Airways check-out counter she was told that her bags were too heavy and would not be accepted.  She proceeded to show the representative the book and to explain why she wanted to share them with the Nigerian women she had been invited to address.

“When I was finished explaining,” she told us, “They checked in the three bags and upgraded me to first class without charging me one cent extra!”

Dr Mamby-Alexander, a graduate of St. Hugh’s High and the UWI, has used her cancer experience to help others to fight the disease. The BPW citation notes: “She is owner and founder of Surgipath & Cytology Lab Service, the first non-hospital-based cytopathology laboratory in Jamaica, where fine-needle aspiration biopsies (FNABs) are performed.”  She has even gone even further, qualifying herself in trichology, and establishing The Hair Loss Clinic of Jamaica, “” the first clinic of its kind in the country where patients receive hair transplants and other non-surgical methods of treating hair loss.”

The relentless Dr Mamby-Anderson reminded us that “with challenges come responsibilities”, and dedicated her Award to her Mother, healthy centenarian Isola Mamby and family who supported her “through my darkest days”. BPW St. Andrew could not have chosen a more deserving recipient, aligned with their own mission to work for “equal opportunity and status for women in economic, civil and political life.”