How We Can Prevent Cervical Cancer Through Fundraising and Awareness
Let’s Talk About Cervical Cancer
According to the Office of National Statistics in 2013, the most common cancer registrations for women in the UK aged 15-49 were breast, skin melanoma and cervical cancer. But since 2008, the government has rolled out HPV vaccines in schools for adolescent girls.
For women in the UK, there has been numerous preventative cancer campaigns: campaigns for the damage that sun beds can do to you, campaigns for checking your breast tissue for lumps, campaigns telling you to get regular Smear Tests. These campaigns have been dotted around bus stops, public bathrooms and in GP waiting rooms, in newspapers, magazines, shared on social media.
So why is cervical cancer still taking lives?
Truthfully, there isn’t a lot of awareness. Maybe it’s just too embarrassing to talk about?
If all cancers were 100% preventable, if all you had to do was be tested for them, would people still die from them?
It’s staggering to think how much of the female population may be unaware and uninformed about cervical cancer.
Despite approximately 99.8% of cervical cancer cases being preventable, this cancer continues to take lives and cause suffering for women and those dearest to them.
Although the HPV vaccine significantly reduces the risk of cervical cancer, the NHS website says ‘it does not guarantee you won’t develop the condition. You should still attend cervical screening tests, even if you’ve had the vaccine’. Regular screening tests are key: you must attend them frequently, because although the newest vaccine prevents infection by as much as 80%-90%, there are still a half dozen less common HPVs that the vaccine doesn’t yet protect against.
Even if the number of women suffering with a preventable cancer was 1, it’s still too many.
If around 1,000 women die from cervical cancer in the UK each year, and 99.8% cases approximately could have been preventable, what does that mean?
No matter how many women die from cervical cancer, it’s still too many.
When it comes to cervical cancer we want to hear the phrase ‘deaths prevented’. UK Cervical Cancer humbly asks for your help.
Doing any good in the world can feel like a raindrop in the bucket sometimes.
It feels that way a lot of the time in life when it comes to big things. Starting a business, voting, learning a musical instrument.
Fundraising can feel the same.
It may feel like one drop. But as author David Mitchell says, ‘what is any ocean but a multitude of drops?’
For UK Cervical Cancer, Visibility is Everything
UK Cervical Cancer is looking for kind volunteers to join the ranks and embark on several fundraising campaigns and opportunities.
As women continue to be diagnosed with this preventable disease, we want to bring cervical cancer to the forefront of the UK’s mindset – and globally too, as we develop – maintaining knowledge of prevention, treatment and support in key social circles.
The biggest thing we can do to help these preventable cases? Educate.
Educate about the screening process, continuing to dispel myth, innate embarrassment and misinformation about female anatomy, raising funds to help those less fortunate.
Our Goals
Our future goals are to expand our reach in the UK by going into places like schools, women’s groups and events. Also in the future, we wish to further our international influence, which currently extends to developing countries including Nepal, Bhutan, the Solomon Islands, Vietnam and the Philippines: countries where as little as £5 or £10 can save a woman’s life and make sure that her children don’t have to grow up without their mother.
If you have caught the volunteering bug, wish to help us in any of our future fundraising endeavours, or simply have any questions about cervical cancer, please contact us on any of the below platforms or take a look at our Get Involved page.
Email
[email protected]
Twitter
@CervicalUk
Facebook
UKcervicalcancer
Telephone:
+447968348184