View gallery Put Yourself in the Picture
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A campaign is aiming to improve the low rates of Teesside women getting smear tests by jumping on the selfie bandwagon.
Put Yourself in the Picture has been launched as part of Cervical Cancer Awareness Week to promote the importance of screening.
Middlesbrough Council has asked staff to take a “selfie” to encourage women to book an appointment and share it with friends and family via Facebook and Twitter.
In some areas of Middlesbrough some 50% of local women miss out on potentially life-saving cancer treatment by not having the cervical screening, or smear, test.
The latest figures for 2012/13 show that 67% of women aged 25-49 in Middlesbrough, 73% in the same age group in North Tees and 73% in Redcar and Cleveland attended their last smear appointment.
The uptake was higher in all three areas in the 50-64 age group.
Cervical cancer is largely preventable thanks to the screening programme and the HPV vaccine.
The screening aims to pick up pre-cancerous cells which can be treated before they even become cancerous.
Although it is thought to save 5,000 lives a year, one in five women eligible for screening, do not take up their invitation and for young women aged 25-29 the figure rises to one in three.
Edward Kunonga, director of public health at Middlesbrough Council, said: “It is very important that women attend their cervical screening appointments when invited as early detection can improve outcomes.
“Over the coming year, working together with a number of agencies, organisations and community groups we aim to improve uptake of cervical cancer screening in Middlesbrough.”
The aim is to improve the uptake across GP practices in Middlesbrough, and to do this, workers have been putting themselves in the picture to highlight the importance of smear test.
The selfies will be submitted later this week to the campaign online at http://ift.tt/1hHMWGy - to show Middlesbrough’s community support for screening.
The campaign stresses how important cervical screening is for health and wellbeing, with early detection and treatment helping to prevent 75% of cancers developing further.
And it doesn’t matter if it’s just a few team members taking part or the whole workforce - the council is keen to see as many workplace selfies as possible.
To find out more about cervical cancer screening and the services and support available visit: www.jostrust.org.uk
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