North Central London Cancer Alliance launches cancer awareness campaign

The North Central London Cancer Alliance, in collaboration with the North Central London Clinical Commissioning Group, has launched a new campaign to encourage anyone with cancer-related symptoms to contact their GP practice.  They also want to ensure that people take part in screening when invited.

If you have any of the following symptoms:

• Unexpected bleeding, like blood in your poo, pee or spit
• Unexplained lump
• Unexplained pain that lasts three weeks or more
• Persistent cough that lasts three weeks or more
• Unexplained weight loss

You should contact your GP practice to arrange a check.

It may be nothing serious – in fact more than 9 out of 10 people are not diagnosed with cancer. However, finding cancer early makes it more treatable. That’s why it’s also important to take part in routine cancer screening.

Naser Turabi, Managing Director of the North Central London Cancer Alliance, says: “We know from local data that many people have held back from contacting their GPs during the peaks of the pandemic because they feared going out or because they felt that healthcare professionals were too busy dealing with COVID-19. The NHS has, in fact, remained open for all conditions throughout the pandemic. Cancer diagnosis and treatment in particular has continued the whole time, using private hospitals to make sure people were treated.  What we are most worried about is people staying at home if they have symptoms such as unexplained pain, a lump, blood in poo or a persistent cough.

“Although the ways to contact your GP have changed and getting through is sometimes difficult, people who have noticed changes in their health must still seek help. If it turns out to be cancer, early diagnosis makes successful treatment much more likely.”

The campaign materials feature north central London patients and clinicians as campaign ambassadors. Among the hospital consultants included are medical oncologists Fharat Raja and Elisavet Papadimitraki from UCLH.

See the campaign film here.

More information about the campaign is available at www.smallc.org.uk.