Claire's Wish: Media

Showing posts with label Media. Show all posts

Saturday, 1 October 2011

Charlotte's Shining Star

Michele, Dr Chris and Charlotte

Charlotte Hughes was told when she was just 20 years old that she had cervical cancer, and doctors discovered a tumour the size of an orange.

Since then she has set up the Charlotte's Shining Star charity in Manchester, which has the same aims as Claire's Wish - to lower the age for cervical screenings and raise awareness of cervical cancer - and also raises funds for the Young Oncology Unit (YOU) at The Christie Manchester.

Manchester's 106.6 radio interviewed Charlotte and TV's Dr Chris Steele who we also interviewed about his strong views on the age of cervical screenings:

(14th April 2011)

Friday, 30 September 2011

Gynaecologist won't let his daughters wait for smears

An expert in gynaecology has said he won't let his daughters wait until they are 25 before they can have a smear test.

Consultant Gynaecologist Paul Carter has seen many cases of cervical cancer that could have been prevented had they been detected earlier in a cervical screening:

"I have three daughters and I certainly won't leave it to 25 for them to have their first smear. Fewer than 60 women develop cancer under the age of 25 each year, but it is still too many.

"Many doctors – myself included – believe that the starting age for smears in England should be lowered, as teenagers become sexually active earlier."

Read the full article from the Daily Mail here.

Wednesday, 14 September 2011

Dr Hilary says money IS a factor

TV's Dr Hilary Jones said on live TV this morning that women under 25 are not screened due to money.

ITV's Daybreak had a feature about the new home testing kit for certain strands of the HPV virus that can lead to cervical cancer, and Dr Hilary was asked why under 25s weren't routinely screened any more:

"The point is that cervical cancer in someone aged under 25 is really very very rare - thankfully.

"If we were to roll out the screening programme to all women under that age we're talking millions and millions of pounds, and there has to be a cut off point with screening where you say 'Is that money well spent? Should we be screening at a younger age?'

"In some countries they do, in the UK the government have decided that it's not cost effective to do it. Now that's a debate to be had, but we would pick up very few women under that age."

You can watch the video and check out Daybreak's Cervical Cancer information page here.

Sunday, 14 August 2011

Smear tests being binned, reveal Newsnight

Cervical screenings for under 25s are being binned before being tested for abnormal and pre-cancerous cells.

Women under the age of 25 are not able to have cervical screenings due to legislation imposed by the Department of Health in 2003. But there are many young women at a higher risk of cervical cancer whose GP's feel it necessary for them to be tested.

ITV's Dr Chris Steele has found out, though, that once the sample reaches the laboratory the government instructions are to bin those from women who were too young.

More than 700 rests sent to labs in 2010 for analysis were ignored.

Dr Chris took the story to BBC's Newsnight who investigated the scandal.

Watch Newsnight's video report here

Metro Radio news also covered the story, as did People news.

What do you think?

Tuesday, 9 August 2011

Screening attendance has dropped again

Cervical screenings are a proven way to prevent cervical cancer but hundreds of thousands of women ignore their invitations each year.
The publicity surrounding Jade Goody's illness and death in 2009 persuaded more than 300,000 more women to go to their screening that year.

But this year the number of women attending dropped again.

The Details

From 2002 to 2008:

The percentage of women aged 25 to 49 who had been screened in the last three years fell from 71.7% to 69.3%
In women under 35 the percentage screened dropped most dramatically from 68% to just 63%

Between 2008 and 2009:

The number of women of all ages having cervical screening increased to 3.7 million from 3.4 million the year before - an increase of 10.5% (around 353,000 people)
The three yearly coverage in women aged 25 to 49 years old reached 72.5 per cent
The ﬁve year coverage of women aged 25 to 64 was 78.9 per cent
The majority of this increase was in women aged 25 to 49

2011:

National reports say that the number of women attending has dropped again

Here are some links to recent news articles to show you how important it is to go to your screening

Female First says 20% Of UK women still don't attend smear tests

The Telegraph talks about women 'making excuses' to avoid cervical cancer smear tests

This Is Leicestershire says 1,500 fewer women attended this year in their area

Net Doctor say nearly two-fifths of women they polled said they had missed or delayed appointments because it was difficult to get out of work, while 35% of those who didn't go said they'd be more likely to if GP surgeries had more flexible opening times

Scotland TV reports that 1 in 5 women in Scotland are not going either this year

Cancer Research found that older women are too embarrassed to go for smear tests, and fear pain, while younger women say they are too busy

Attending your screening is the most effective way of preventing cervical cancer, and the majority of those who do develop the disease had not attended their smear tests or follow ups, like Jade Goody.

Tuesday, 2 August 2011

Our Campaign in the Media so far

For our first petition only the local papers were covering our story, but after we vowed to start a second petition this year the national media have taken an interest. Here is our press coverage up to this point.

Claire's Obituary in The Sentinel

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