A weekly newspaper reporter has been named as one of 20 groundbreaking women of 2017 by The Independent.

Cambs Times journalist Kath Sansom, left, was included in the list for her work on the ‘Sling the Mesh’ campaign, which she has run for the past two-and-a-half years.

Kath’s campaign aims to end pelvic surgical mesh implants which have left women with life changing injuries after childbirth.

She was joined on the list by actress Rose McGowan, who was among the first to speak out against disgraced producer Harvey Weinstein, and footballer Eni Aluko, who campaigns against racism in the sport.

Said Kath: “It is an honour to be among so many great women.

“This is testament to how one small person can make a big difference if you keep going in what you know is the right thing to do.”

Independent journalist Harriet Marsden, who compiled the list, said: “The past few years have seen the ‘biggest health scandal since thalidomide’ blown wide open, and nobody has done more to expose the truth than Kath Sansom.

“In 2015, after she received a vaginal mesh implant to treat mild incontinence after babies, she suffered agonising pain and knew something was wrong.

“She began to do some research online, and stumbled into a world of pain and ignored suffering: what would become known as the vaginal mesh scandal.

“As she herself wrote: ‘It probably needed a journalist to be mesh injured, to provide the final media push needed for the issue to get to Westminster.'”