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Boosting take-up of cervical cancer test
Wearside women are being encouraged to take advantage of life-saving screening programmes.
Sunderland Teaching Primary Care Trust (TPCT) has teamed up with women's project, The Bridge, in Washington, in a bid to beat cervical cancer.
It is hoped the drive, which takes place this week as part of European Cervical Cancer Prevention Week, will increase the take-up rates of cervical cancer screening across the city.
Gillian Gibson, public health specialist (screening) at NHS South of Tyne and Wear, which covers Sunderland TPCT, said: "It is estimated that early detection and treatment can prevent up to 75 per cent of cervical cancers from developing. That is why screening is so important."
She added: "We are committed to raising awareness of this, and The Bridge Project is ideally placed to help us spread this message."
The TPCT first commissioned The Bridge Project in March 2008 in an effort to increase the uptake of cervical screening among women aged 25-35 in the Pennywell and Thorney Close areas of Sunderland, which had lower take-up rates.
Trained Bridge volunteers, armed with questionnaires, visited GP surgeries, shopping centres and coffee mornings in a bid to identify the barriers to screening that women were facing.
They found that some women felt uncomfortable in clinical settings, while others said they did not realise their GP practice was open during evenings to offer screening.
These findings were then fed back to the local GP surgeries, Pennywell Medical Centre and Happy House Surgery, and work was done to make treatment rooms more comfortable and welcoming and raise awareness of the practices' opening times.
Supported by Sunderland TPCT through funding and training, the volunteers have since broadened their scope and have been out in force in the community to raise awareness of the importance of cervical screening.
Bridge community health worker Val Kilner, who has been co-ordinating the project, said: "As well as promoting the message within our in-house support and education groups, we have visited health centres, mother and toddler groups, breast feeding groups. We've targeted every woman wherever we can."
During Cervical Cancer Prevention Week, the volunteers will be working hard to promote the importance of cervical screening to the scores of women who use The Bridge Project's education and support services.
They are also visiting the Department for Work and Pensions' office in Washington to raise awareness among female staff.
Janice Rokni, support centre manager at The Bridge Project, which also has two other sites in Washington and one in Chester-le-Street, said: "Through our extensive networks – built up over the past 25 years – we are spreading this important message to as many women as we can."
The family of Claire Walker Everett visited Downing Street earlier this month as their fight to lower the cervical smear testing age continues.
Claire died of cervical cancer in 2008, aged 23 – too young for the smear which could have saved her life.
The mum-of-one spent her final months supporting other women suffering from the illness and campaigning for the testing age to be dropped.
Her grieving husband Colin and parents Bob and Lyn have since continued her fight and last year took a petition bearing thousands of signatures to the Prime Minister's doorstep.
The Government promised a thorough review of the testing age – but just a few months later said the age would not be changed.
Claire's husband Colin has set up a website – www.clairesmessage.org – to keep people updated on the campaign and offer support to women suffering from cervical cancer.
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Weather for Sunderland
Thursday 09 February 2012
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Heavy sleet
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