AUGUSTA, Ga. – It’s a country with some of the highest cervical cancer rates in the world. One Augusta doctor is on a mission to save woman from this deadly disease.

Dr. Daron Ferris makes the 2,800 mile journey from Augusta to Peru several times a year to fight cervical cancer. He’s helped create a permanent clinic in the country that provides free exams to thousands of women.

"Every day I see five to ten women with advanced invasive cancer to the cervix. It's a horrible disease," said Dr. Ferris, founder of CerviCusco.

"Cervical cancer in Peru is the main reason women die between 16 and 65 years of age," said Ferris. He said only two percent of the women in Peru get pap smears.

Dr. Ferris is the director of the Gynecologic Cancer Prevention Center at MCGHealth. For eight years, he's researched cervical cancer in Peru. Four years ago he started humanitarian trips to the country, focusing on treatment for disadvantaged women living in Cusco and the Peruvian Highlands.

"It's been difficult. It's been a challenge. We've partnered with local hospitals and ministries of health. We don't want to be the gringo-know-it-alls. We want this to be a Peruvian effort as well," said Ferris.

This May, under the non-profit organization CerviCusco, Dr. Ferris opened the first and only free clinic in the region. The clinic is run by three Peruvians. Volunteers from MCGHealth make regular trips to help examine, diagnose, and treat patients.

"The number of people coming to the clinic has been increasing daily. Twenty-five times what it was in May," said Ferris.

Women from all over make their way to the clinic to be examined.

"Most of these individuals don't go to the doctor unless they are near death because they don't have the money and it's hard to get to doctors,” said Ferris.

The concept of preventative health care is completely foreign. They don't understand.

"We had several women who had cervical cancer to the point that we were unable to treat them," said Christie Hupman, volunteer.

But they were able to save women who were in the early stages of the disease. The volunteers hope education and preventative health care will help win the battle against the number-one killer of women in Peru.

You don't have to be a doctor or in the medical field to volunteer. Dr. Ferris says people from all walks of life can help this cause.