Barnsley woman helps NHS launch first-ever breast screening campaign to help detect thousands of cancers earlier
Thousands more breast cancers could be detected earlier in England next year in a major new NHS drive to support more women to attend potentially life-saving breast screening.
The NHS in England has today launched its first-ever awareness campaign to highlight the benefits of screening and encourage more women to make the most of regular mammograms, as figures show more than four in ten (46.3%) invited for the first time don’t act on their invitation.
The campaign – supported by leading charity Breast Cancer Now – launches with a new advert across TV, radio and online to highlight that screening can detect any cancers as early as possible, while providing reassurance and relief to millions of women who get the all-clear.
It features Susan Wilson from Barnsley whose screening appointment detected a Grade 2 tumour in her left breast. Sue has undergone surgery with follow up radiotherapy and has been given the all-clear. Her message to other women is when that letter comes don’t put it off, because it saved her life, it can save yours too.
New NHS estimates suggest that if screening attendance could be improved to 80% of those eligible next year (2025/26), nearly a million more women (around 925,000) could be screened, compared to 2022/23 – with over 7,500 additional breast cancers detected at an earlier stage, when they are more treatable.
The landmark NHS campaign sees celebrities including Newsnight anchor Victoria Derbyshire, broadcaster and presenter Julia Bradbury, and Strictly Come Dancing judge Shirley Ballas write ‘unofficial’ invitation letters to women about their personal experiences of screening to reassure them and encourage them to attend. They are joined by cancer survivors, NHS staff and TV doctors in sharing letters in a number of moving films launched today.
The campaign comes as a new survey of 2,000 women for the NHS showed that almost 40% rarely or never talk about breast screening with their female friends and families, and almost a quarter (24%) of women said they wouldn’t attend if they didn’t already have symptoms like a lump.
More than a fifth (21%) also said that embarrassment at being topless in front of someone would prevent them from attending. Concerns about screening being painful (18.5%) also feature. However, 83.2% said they would attend breast screening if they were invited.
Claire Rowney, chief executive at Breast Cancer Now, said: “We’re absolutely thrilled at NHS England’s announcement today that they’re funding the first-ever breast screening awareness campaign to encourage more women to attend breast screening when invited – for too long thousands of women have missed out on the vital screening that saves lives from breast cancer.
“We know there are many reasons behind women not taking up their screening invite, and that uptake is lower amongst specific groups – including those living in more deprived areas and from certain minority ethnic communities – driving inequalities in early diagnosis and breast cancer survival. As such, NHS England’s plans to focus especially on reaching women who are less likely to get screened and often face additional barriers to attending, is so crucial to the success of this campaign.
“We look forward to working closely with NHS England to maximise the impact of this campaign and ensure screening is more accessible to everyone who is eligible.”
Women registered with a GP are automatically invited for NHS breast screening for the first time between the ages of 50 and 53, then every three years until their 71st birthday – while women aged 71 and over can self-refer for screening.
While most women attending screening will receive peace of mind that they have no early signs of breast cancer, the NHS encouraged women to ensure they continue to check their breasts regularly between their screening appointments and to get any unusual changes checked out by their GP.
Breast screening does have some risks. Some women who have screening will be diagnosed and treated for slow-growing breast cancers that may never otherwise have been found or caused them harm. Mammograms also do not always find a cancer that is there, but most people feel the benefits of breast screening outweigh the possible risks.
As part of efforts to drive uptake of breast screening, the NHS is launching a new “ping and book” service, with women already starting to get alerts to their phones via the NHS App to remind them they are due or overdue an appointment, with new functionality being developed to enable millions to book screening directly through the NHS App next year.
The NHS is diagnosing more people than ever before with cancer at an early stage, and latest monthly figures show the NHS met the cancer faster diagnosis standard in November for the eighth month out of the last ten, with 77% of people getting the all clear or a cancer diagnosis within four weeks.
NHS England confirmed last month that the performance standard would be increased so that 80% of patients receive a diagnosis or have cancer ruled out within 4 weeks by March 2026. This change will see around 100,000 more patients who are referred for cancer checks receive a diagnosis or the all-clear within 4 weeks next year.
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