Pakistan has the highest incidents of breast cancer in Asia. 1 in 9 women in Pakistan are diagnosed with it, and over 13,500 women died of the disease in 2020. Higher fatality rates from breast cancer mostly stem from late-stage diagnosis. Early detection increases the survival rate by almost 93%.

However, in highly conservative Pakistan, owing to many taboos around breasts, women are often reluctant to talk about their bodies with others, even their doctors. As a result, they have no idea how to self-check.

GharPar, Pakistan’s leading home-salon services app wanted to come up with a solution to overcome the social barriers around such conversations in order to spread awareness about the early detection of breast cancer and teach women how to do self-checkups.

No matter how conservative a Pakistani woman is, there is always one person with whom she is very comfortable discussing her body, one person with whom they open up to even more than their husbands or doctors.

Their waxing lady.

So GharPar collaborated with Indus Hospital to train all their salon workers in the right technique on how a breast self-exam should be conducted. The waxing ladies then became beacons of hope, passing on this valuable training to their customers in the privacy of their homes. What makes GharPar the perfect platform for this initiative is that the monthly waxing appointment becomes a monthly reminder for the women of Pakistan to do a breast self-exam.

"GharPar" means "At Home" in Urdu, and that is where we strategically felt that the battle against breast cancer could be won - the Waxing Lady Tutorials used a unique regional insight to provide a life-saving solution, an insight we knew would turn into more open conversations with the earned PR it would receive.

Pakistani women are taught to prioritize personal care from a young age. We tapped into the women’s personal care habits – particularly the monthly waxing and salon appointment – to turn it into an educational tool.

The intimate setting of a waxing appointment and the comfort most women enjoy with their waxing lady opened the doors to discuss a sensitive topic like breast cancer and introduce them to a new healthcare habit.

The GharPar app employs over 150 waxing ladies. They collaborated with Indus Hospital to conduct workshops where doctors and cancer specialists educated the waxing ladies about breast cancer and trained them in breast self-exam techniques.

The brand introduced the "Check Up GharPar" initiative on its app and social media, announcing the initiative and inviting women to book their appointment and learn how to do a self-exam from their waxing lady.

We also introduced a pop-up notification in the app, announcing the Check Up Ghar Par initiative and reminding women to book their appointments and do their monthly breast self-exam.

Most Pakistani women choose to call a waxing lady on a monthly basis a few days after their menstrual cycle starts, which is also the ideal time for a breast self-exam.

In Pakistan, the door has always been slammed shut on conversations around breast cancer. Through GharPar’s waxing ladies, we finally broke through that door and managed to help thousands of women across the country learn to do breast self-exams and develop a life-saving self-care habit.

With over 50,000 app downloads on Playstore and over 30,000 registered users, the Check Up GharPar initiative reached hundreds of women daily, across 6 cities, who visit the app to book their waxing and beauty appointments.

So far, more than 5000 women have been given instructions on how to self-check, and close to 37% have even opted for a screening.