Lady Ganga Biography, Age, Height, Wife, Net Worth and Family

The first Lady Ganga Trailblazer Award was presented in honor of Baldwin on October 5, 2018, at the 32nd International IPVS conference in Sydney, Australia. Award winners must have executed impactful campaigns to raise public awareness about HPV and HPV-related diseases, HPV vaccines, and cervical cancer screening. Contributions may be academic, artistic, social, cultural, economic, technical, or media related. The award was presented by Dr. Shobha S. Krishnan, Founder and President of the Global Initiative Against HPV and Cervical Cancer (GIAHC) and was shared by Drs. Silvia San Jose, President, IPVS and Joel Palefsky, Chair, HPV Working Group, IPVS for their demonstration of creativity in raising awareness about HPV and related diseases by launching the first International HPV Awareness day on March 4, 2018. In 2019, the award went to Miriam Cremer, a board-certified obstetrician and gynecologist and the president and founder of Basic Health International (BHI), a group that is focussed on eradicating cervical cancer around the world.

In 2017, Bulova created a special-edition watch to pay tribute to Baldwin and to help raise money for and awareness of cervical cancer. Bulova partnered with the Global Film Fund and the American Cancer Society to launch the newly designed watch, with 10 percent of the sales being donated to the American Cancer Society.

In 2016, the film Lady Ganga was awarded the Flickers’ International Humanitarian Award at the Rhode Island International Film Festival.

The film Lady Ganga: Nilza’s Story was released in London on November 4, 2015, three years after Baldwin’s death. All profits were donated to the Michele Baldwin Memorial Fund, managed by the American Sexual Health Association. On February 4, 2016, the film was shown at the UN on World Cancer Day, an event that had the theme Towards a Cervical Cancer Free World. Baldwin’s parents, Ruth and Ken Frazier, and her children attended. Baldwin’s sixteen-year-old child spoke about the loss of her mother.

Filmmakers Mark Hefti and Fredric Lumiere approached Baldwin, shortly after her return from India, about being featured, along with other women, in the documentary film called Someone You Love: The HPV Epidemic which was released in 2014. After hearing Baldwin’s story the team decided to dedicate a documentary exclusively to her. Lumiere found her story “exotic and epic” and “it was about even more than cervical cancer, it was about accepting your destiny, coming to peace with it, and doing something incredible with your life”. Lumiere and Hefti started a successful Kickstarter campaign that raised triple the amount of money they needed, more than $150,000. This allowed them to translate the documentary into more than 50 languages.

After returning from India, Baldwin’s condition worsened. She was able to stay in her apartment with the help of three close friends. Ten weeks later, on February 5, 2012, Baldwin died at her home in Albuquerque at the age of 45. She was cremated on an open-air funeral pyre in a Buddhist ceremony in Colorado. Baldwin’s mother described the ceremony as both sorrowful and joyful.

In 2012 Baldwin was, posthumously, given the Top Expedition award from SUP (stand up paddle) magazine for her Ganges River paddle. Her mother, Ruth Frazier accepted the award on her behalf.

Her journey began on October 17, 2011, with Stone in a faster boat that carried his filming equipment and supplies. The duo met with a support van every three or four days. At one point Baldwin saw a floating body and called the police, who advised her that the poor, who cannot afford any type of funeral, often put the bodies of loved ones in the river. She stated that she found the paddleboarding soothing and helpful in easing her pain from the cancer. Baldwin spent ten to twelve hours per day standing, paddling, and performing Tibetan prayers for the dying.

Baldwin was diagnosed with cervical cancer in 2009. She underwent chemotherapy, radiation and surgery. Baldwin had gone 10 years without a cervical screening test (pap smear), twice canceling, partially due to the expense, since she had no health insurance. She sought medical attention when she began bleeding.

Baldwin was married twice, having two children with her first husband and one child with her second. She lived in Colorado with her second husband, then returned to Albuquerque in 2009, where she worked as a paramedic.

Michele Lenore Frazier Baldwin (October 6, 1966 – February 5, 2012), also known as Lady Ganga, was an American who set a world record in standup paddleboarding by paddling 700 miles (1,100 km) down the Ganges in India after being diagnosed with terminal cervical cancer in 2011. Her goal was to raise money and awareness for cervical cancer, human papillomavirus infection, and the HPV vaccine.