COMMUNITIES in Warrington are being asked to help raise awareness of cancer so it can be diagnosed earlier.
Cheshire & Merseyside Cancer Alliance is joining forces with voluntary, community, faith and social enterprise organisations in the borough to increase people’s understanding of cancer.
The aim is to improve knowledge of the signs and symptoms of cancer within local communities, encourage more people to go for NHS screening when they are invited, and to reduce inequalities in access to high-quality cancer treatment and care.
Cancer is easier to treat if it is found in its early stages and, with prompt treatment, usually much more successfully, so improving the understanding of early signs of the disease is vital.
The cancer alliance is launching its Community Engagement Project, a £100,000 pilot scheme with the voluntary and community sector in Warrington, as well as Knowsley and Halton. The alliance hopes to expand it to all areas of Cheshire and Merseyside in due course. CMCA will be working with Warrington Voluntary Action on the project to involve community groups, delivered through a grant programme.
Tracey Wright, associate director of Cheshire & Merseyside Cancer Alliance, said: “The NHS Long Term Plan has set an ambition for all cancers to be diagnosed at an early stage by 2028. One of the most important ways to do this is for people to see a clinician as soon as they suspect something is wrong and to go to their screening appointment when invited.
“Our Community Engagement Project is an exciting partnership with the voluntary sector and is designed to utilise the fantastic community groups and volunteers across our region to help us get these messages out to more people.
“We also want to support community groups in offering the right advice to people on living a healthy life and making choices which improve physical wellbeing so cancer can be prevented in the first place.”
Tracey added: “We also know there are a number of groups across our region who have more difficulty than others in accessing the cancer treatment and care they need, whether that is due to deprivation, ethnicity, age or other barriers. The local organisations we will be working with know these problems at a grassroots level and so can help spread these important messages to people who have been harder to reach in the past.”
Alison Cullen, chief officer at Warrington Voluntary Action, said: “This is a really worthwhile project to improve the understanding of cancer in our community. We will be ensuring that the information provided by our community groups is of a high quality and working with Cheshire & Merseyside Cancer Alliance will help us with this. The groups we work with can also signpost people to appropriate cancer services and where to find further information if required.”
For more information, see: https://www.warringtonva.org.uk/
