Yorkshire Coast women encouraged to book and go for smear test
Women on the Yorkshire Coast are being encouraged to book and go for their smear test as part of Cervical Cancer Prevention Week.
Women on the Yorkshire Coast are being encouraged to book and go for their smear test.
It is part of Cervical Cancer Prevention Week
Jeannette Richards, Specialist Nurse in Women's Health at Brook Square Surgery in Scarborough, said:
"The national screening programme was launched in 1988 and usually we can get about 3,200 diagnosed with cervical cancer each year. So hopefully by doing the screenings, we're saving thousands of lives each year as well because you're picking it up early.
"Back in March obviously when lockdown came in, cervical screening and a lot of other screening programmes were suspended. We restarted in July and we got back in touch with anybody that had phoned up the surgery trying to book an appointment and we've managed to get all of those ladies in.
"It's a slightly different environment at the moment. It's a different experience. The actual test is exactly the same but we've had to put different safety measures into place to keep patients and staff safe. The nurses are obviously wearing their PPE but we're just asking ladies to wear a face mask.
"The environment is very safe in the surgery. We're keeping the footfall down to a minimum but obviously we don't want these ladies to put off coming to the surgery for their cervical screenings because the biggest risk of cervical cancer is by not attending the screening test.
"The highest category are in the 30 year-olds and the 40-year-olds. These women are usually working or at home with their children at the moment so that opportunity still needs to be taken. We're doing our best to keep things as normal as we can but quite short.
"It's the fourth most common cancer for women and the primary cause is usually to do with cervical abnormalities is the Human Papillomavirus HPV and some of these can be quite high risk. The only way you can test for this virus is by having the cervical screenings done regularly."