Every person will experience a life-changing turning point. Two significant events in the life of Dr. Nordan Otzer altered his aspirations forever.

It was the year 2007. Dr. Nordan was employed by a rural hospital in Tamil Nadu. He learned of his mother’s cervical cancer, which had already spread to her liver, one day. As soon as he got this information, Dr. Nordan hurried home. Sadly, she passed away a month after her diagnosis. Dr. Nordan’s life saw its first major change at that time. Up until that point, he had intended to relocate abroad and work in a major hospital. However, following this occurrence, he returned to his hamlet of Hunder in the Nubra Valley and began working as a medical officer at the adjacent district government hospital.
While he was employed at the neighborhood hospital, his life experienced its second turning point.

“One day, I received a call from Mr Ishey Tundup, the principal of a school in Leh. He was unable to track down one of his students, Sonam Dolma,” he recalls. “Dolma’s right leg had been amputated below the knee, as she had bone cancer. She was in devastating pain, and I couldn’t withstand the feeling of helplessness I felt. We spoke to the parents and talked about getting her treated in Delhi, and assured them that we would find a sponsor,” says Dr Nordan. Dr Nordan did find a sponsor and took her to Delhi. There the doctors amputated her legs below the hips and she was recovering well. Suddenly, things got worse and she died.

Dr. Nordan then decided that enough was enough. He claims that individuals, particularly women, needed to know more about their bodies and physical health in relation to reproductive health. He started his so-called “nomadic” journey with the goal of bringing modern treatment to this isolated region of India since he felt that this needed to change.

However, there were further difficulties to be overcome at Nubra. “These women would gaze down in shyness whenever I mentioned the cervix or the breasts. However, I could tell they were appreciative that someone was bringing up these issues and spreading awareness among them by looking into their eyes. I had the opportunity to interact with almost all of the ladies living in Nubra during our one-year outreach project.I spoke to them about the symptoms of breast or cervical cancer and the need for regular checkups, screening and treatment,” he says. He sought the help of some gynaecologists in Singapore as well. When it came to the screening, hundreds of women turned up⁠, even those who were healthy and had no symptoms or health issues. Started in 2010, the team of doctors led by Dr Nordan has screened around 10,000 women from across Ladakh in the last nine years and 1,000 among them had precancerous lesions. The team operates under the banner of Himalayan Women’s Health Project.

There is a highly non-invasive, low morbidity, painless, and straightforward treatment to cure these precancerous lesions, according to Dr Quek Swee Chong, a Singapore-based obstetrics and gynecology specialist who assisted Dr Nordan in this endeavour. The screen-and-treat method is what it is known as. Speaking on his own experience, he claims that the initial years were gathering information, obtaining a sense of the extent of illness incidence, and building rapport with the local populace.