Cervical Cancer Prevention Week – 23-29 January 2023

Cervical cancer is caused when abnormal cells in the lining of the cervix grow in an uncontrolled way and eventually form a tumour. If these abnormal cells are not caught soon enough they have the potential to grow into surrounding tissues and spread to other parts of the body.

Cervical cancer is most common in women in their early 30s with around 3,200 women being diagnosed in the UK each year.*

In the UK, the Government and the NHS are working hard to screen for early signs of the illness with the NHS cervical screening programme for women aged between 25 and 64 as well as the fairly recent HPV vaccine for girls and boys aged 12 -13 years which helps protect against cancers caused by HPV, including cervical cancer.

In addition to the screening programmes, cancer charities, both nationally and locally, are working hard to raise awareness throughout the year, particularly, during Cervical Cancer Prevention Week.

This week seeks to highlight the symptoms of cervical cancer and the importance of women of all ages engaging with the screening programmes, taking up the HPV vaccine if relevant and knowing where to find support and further information.

Women lose their lives to cervical cancer every day. Awareness, prevention and treatment are vitally important if the statistics are to improve.

In contrast to all the positive press that we will hear this week about awareness and prevention, it is also clear that the NHS is continuing to struggle with waiting times, referral times and meeting their targets for treatment, including patients affected by cancer. This has been further impacted by COVID over the last three years.

At Lester Aldridge, we regularly receive enquiries from people who have experienced delays in referral and diagnosis of cancer. Sometimes those enquiries are from family members following the loss of a loved one to cancer. There are occasions where things have gone wrong, there has been a failure to refer or a delay in the referral which has led to advanced disease, sometimes terminal, being diagnosed at a late stage. This can mean that the treatment is more invasive, less effective or that only palliative care is then available.

How can we help?

Lester Aldridge pursues medical negligence claims for clients and their families in these situations and we are successful in securing awards of damages for them.

Please contact us at online.enquiries@la-law.com or call 01202 786260 to find out more information on how we can help you.