I volunteer to help out with cancer policy locally and nationally.
One initiative I am involved in is the Liverpool Healthy Lung project. There was a short item on this project on Granada TV last night. Essentially older folk from Liverpool GP practices with some risk of lung health problems have been invited to see a lung nurse specialist to answer some questions about 'My Lung Risk' and to blow into a spyrometry machine. Sadly, thousands of people who received this invite have not attended. But so far, the project has detected over 40 lung cancers, most at a very early and treatable stage. The TV clip is intended to encourage Liverpool people who have received this letter from their GP to attend the appointment.
thanks for sharing this Tony. It is so good to see these initiatives being publicised. We hope this will mean many more people are diagnosed early and receive curative treatment.
Good to know about the publicity for lung health checks. Having had spirometry and other lung function checks myself yesterday having lost half my lung to cancer in Dec 2010, I always follow up on tests. One of the many problems with lung cancer is lack of awareness of how many treatment options there are now and how many patients are living with it rather than it being 'an instant death sentence'. I was therefore shocked last week to read an article in the Guardian about euthanasia in Holland citing one of the reasons might be 'not having to watch a loved one with lung cancer choking on their own blood'. How dare they frighten people in this way? I've spoken with a few experts at the Christie where I was speaking to a group of clinicians about communicating better with patients and carers to ask if this is common, they confirmed it isn't. How can we ensure the media becomes more responsible in its coverage of lung cancer? It is commonly portrayed as somebody coughing up blood into a handkerchief (more like consumption/TB) yet this is not a symptom that many people have and all the more reason they can be so shocked by their diagnosis. The key is to finding it sooner and treating it earlier when there are more options. Anything the media can do to publicise this as well as the fact that people are living with it and going back to work/life (as shown by Nick Robinson and James Brokenshire recently) can only help the cause.
The lack of response to letters from GPs is similar to other national health screening programmes that sadly are declining in their take-up despite the evidence showing the earlier something is found, the better. Burying our heads in the sand only makes worse for everyone. Good luck with the initiative and well done for volunteering for this much needed cause.
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Hello to everyone
