Sponsored by
BMA backs lowering age for cervical cancer screening
A grieving dad today welcomed the support of GPs in the fight to lower the minimum age for cervical cancer screening.
The British Medical Association (BMA), backed the campaign led by the family of Washington mum Claire Walker Everett, whose dying wish was to cut the smear test age to save women's lives.
Her death sparked a massive national campaign – backed by dying Big Brother star Jade Goody and a 15,000-name petition to Downing Street – to lower the minimum screening age from 25 to 18.
Claire was just 23 when she died of cervical cancer in September – two years too young for the test that could have saved her life.
Her distraught parents Bob and Lyn, and husband Colin, vowed to carry on the fight after Ministers rejected their plea to lower the screening age last week after an independent review.
The BMA voted three to one that women should be screened for cervical cancer from the age of 20.
Claire Walker Everett's dad Bob said: "They are sending a clear message to the Government that they are sick of picking up the pieces.
"They are the ones who treat these girls on a day-to-day basis, not the so-called experts sitting behind a desk in Whitehall."
The motion at the BMA's annual conference in Liverpool was proposed by Dr Mary McCarthy, from Staffordshire.
She said the number of women attending smear tests has plummeted 10 per cent in the last decade, and the poorest attenders were in the younger age group.
Dr McCarthy added: "A 24-year-old with a family history of early cervical cancer who asks for screening is made more anxious by the information that she is too young and has to wait a year.
"Is it ethical to refuse these women a smear when it is possible to pick up changes to the cervix at a stage early enough to effect a cure?"
The cervical cancer screening review was carried out by the independent Advisory Committee on Cervical Screening. It claimed evidence showed that testing women at a younger age would do more harm than good.
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Sunderland
Tuesday 07 February 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: -3 C to 6 C
Wind Speed: 9 mph
Wind direction: South west
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: -2 C to 1 C
Wind Speed: 10 mph
Wind direction: South
