About 6 weeks ago I emailed Dept. of Health to ask if they intended to run a national awareness campaign for womb cancer. Their reply was fairly basic but they referred me onto to Public Health England as they are apparently the organisation responsible for running the “Be Clear on Cancer” campaign.
So I sent off another email and yesterday, I finally received a reply from them. They stated that they have no current plans to run a womb cancer awareness campaign as part of “Be Clear on Cancer” because BConC “targets cancers where there is evidence that the symptoms are not widely known”.
I would have thought that the fact that many of the women who come to WCSUK had never heard of womb cancer before being diagnosed was proof enough that the symptoms are not widely known about, but I guess they think otherwise.
Time and time again, I hear from women who say they had never heard of womb cancer or endometrial cancer as it’s often called. I was one of them. I had never heard of it; I had no idea where my endometrium was; I knew nothing about the symptoms; I had no idea that I ticked most of the risk factor boxes.
There are many women out there who believe that womb cancer is a type of cervical cancer and that a smear test will pick it up – considering that myself and a few other women I know had clear smear tests 2 or 3 weeks prior to being diagnosed then that’s another misconception blown out of the window.
So, the guy who replied to my email at PHE will probably have come into work this morning to an inbox full of emails from women who have been diagnosed with womb cancer and who all knew nothing about it beforehand. He is probably going to regret suggesting that there was no need for a womb cancer awareness campaign.
In the absence of a national awareness campaign and the lack of a dedicated womb cancer charity then its left to WCSUK to do what we can. We are lucky to have some very motivated and dedicated ladies who are doing as much as they can to raise awareness but we can only do so much; we can only reach so many women.
WCSUK has no funding; no celebrity supporters. We are a grass roots voluntary organisation that relies on women, many of whom are still going through treatment, to help spread the word. Every few days I hear from yet another woman who has just been diagnosed and knew nothing about womb cancer. So please don’t tell me that there is enough awareness – I was unaware of womb cancer 5 years ago when I was diagnosed and nothing much seems to have changed since then.
So WCSUK will continue to do all we can to get the word out about womb cancer and bit by bit we will reach out to as many women as possible. Raising awareness is vital if we are to stop the numbers of women being diagnosed from increasing. How high do the numbers have to go before there is real action taken?
xx Kaz xx
So I sent off another email and yesterday, I finally received a reply from them. They stated that they have no current plans to run a womb cancer awareness campaign as part of “Be Clear on Cancer” because BConC “targets cancers where there is evidence that the symptoms are not widely known”.
I would have thought that the fact that many of the women who come to WCSUK had never heard of womb cancer before being diagnosed was proof enough that the symptoms are not widely known about, but I guess they think otherwise.
Time and time again, I hear from women who say they had never heard of womb cancer or endometrial cancer as it’s often called. I was one of them. I had never heard of it; I had no idea where my endometrium was; I knew nothing about the symptoms; I had no idea that I ticked most of the risk factor boxes.
There are many women out there who believe that womb cancer is a type of cervical cancer and that a smear test will pick it up – considering that myself and a few other women I know had clear smear tests 2 or 3 weeks prior to being diagnosed then that’s another misconception blown out of the window.
So, the guy who replied to my email at PHE will probably have come into work this morning to an inbox full of emails from women who have been diagnosed with womb cancer and who all knew nothing about it beforehand. He is probably going to regret suggesting that there was no need for a womb cancer awareness campaign.
In the absence of a national awareness campaign and the lack of a dedicated womb cancer charity then its left to WCSUK to do what we can. We are lucky to have some very motivated and dedicated ladies who are doing as much as they can to raise awareness but we can only do so much; we can only reach so many women.
WCSUK has no funding; no celebrity supporters. We are a grass roots voluntary organisation that relies on women, many of whom are still going through treatment, to help spread the word. Every few days I hear from yet another woman who has just been diagnosed and knew nothing about womb cancer. So please don’t tell me that there is enough awareness – I was unaware of womb cancer 5 years ago when I was diagnosed and nothing much seems to have changed since then.
So WCSUK will continue to do all we can to get the word out about womb cancer and bit by bit we will reach out to as many women as possible. Raising awareness is vital if we are to stop the numbers of women being diagnosed from increasing. How high do the numbers have to go before there is real action taken?
xx Kaz xx
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