Tears came down Abby Skinner’s face as she cradled her friend’s newborn child in a hospital room only steps away from where she had received her diagnosis hours before.

All the 19-year-old environmental sustainability sophomore could think about was the possibility that she would never be able to have her own children.

Skinner, who is the Walker Center Resident Student Association president, never expected to harbor these fears, but then again, she never expected to be diagnosed with an early-stage case of cervical cancer, either.

After being diagnosed in the summer of 2011 and having surgery on her 20th birthday in August, Skinner has fully recovered from cervical cancer and made it her mission to raise awareness about the disease, she said.

The members of the OU Housing Center Student Association, who helped Skinner extensively during her absence and recovery last fall, are continuing their support by collecting money for the National Cervical Cancer Coalition this month as part of Cervical Cancer Awareness Month, Skinner said.

Some women might think they are not susceptible to cervical cancer, but it is an important issue for college women, Skinner said.

“It’s a young-women’s cancer,” Skinner said.

Skinner hopes to raise awareness and encourage women to make regular visits to the gynecologist so they can identify and combat cervical cancer in its early stages, she said.

“It is a very treatable cancer,” Skinner said.

Skinner collected donations at the Walker Center “Snacks and Sexperts” event 7 p.m. Thursday in the Walker Center social lounge.

“The Sexperts are a group of peer educators, and I organized the event to raise awareness about overall sexual health and wellness,” Skinner said.

Sexperts from the OU Women’s Outreach Center spoke about safer sex and preventing sexually-transmitted diseases and pregnancy, center director Kathy Moxley said.

Speakers advocated for prevention methods and vaccinations for human papilloma virus, a sexually transmitted disease that causes almost 99 percent of cervical cancer, Moxley said.

“Students in Oklahoma and throughout the south more generally have only been exposed to abstinence education in high school, so they really don’t know a lot about safe sex, which is something that is really important to know in college,” anthropology senior and sexpert Kalli Wolf said.

Women are not the only ones who should worry about this issue, Moxley said.

“[Men] could be transmitting it to women,” she said. “If we are going to stop the spread of [the virus], we can’t just focus on women.”

There are donation collection buckets located in all housing center Resident Student Association offices, and Skinner is passing out teal awareness ribbons from the Walker office.

Skinner wears a permanent awareness ribbon tattooed across a four-leaf clover on her hip to remind her of how lucky she was to have such a smooth recovery and still be able to have children, she said.

“Every day, I feel so lucky,” Skinner said.

For more information about the Housing Center Student Association’s cervical cancer awareness month, visit OUDaily.com