What do people in Stoke think about breast and lung cancer?
Congratulations to the HCC teams for winning the “getting your message across” NHS Stoke on Trent award on Tuesday night. The teams have been doing such a fantastic job spreading the cancer awareness message in Stoke on Trent and they really deserve this award. Well done to everyone involved and keep up the good work!
Helen Harrison who has been leading the programme since it started will unfortunately been leaving NHS Stoke on Trent in March for the bright lights of London. Thank you for making the cancer programme the success it is today and we all wish you the very best of luck in your new job!
As well as the community teams trying to encourage people to get checked out early for cancer, wouldn’t it be great if key people in the community could also help us save lives?
A teaching pack has been developed by Louise Edwards to help train key people who are present in the communities with the hope they will help spread the message about the key signs and symptoms of breast, bowel and lung cancer.
Sandra a nurse from the Norton and Bradeley team has spoken to a group of Health Care Support Workers this week, hopefully they are now all passing on the message when they are out and about. Many thanks Sandra and thanks Louise for the developing the training pack, for training the teams and for all your clinical and non-clinical input to the programme, we couldn’t do it without you!
The cancer awareness teams have a busy few weeks ahead of them with a number of awareness sessions planned. The teams will be promoting the early signs and symptoms of cancer at two lunch clubs in Longton, Home Bargain in Burslem and a fun day event at Tunstall Park this month. March will see the Longton team giving out information in Longton market and attending a tea dance. Anyone interested in becoming a cancer awareness volunteer please contact Jill on 01782 298064 or jill.davies@stoke.nhs.uk
The Healthy Communities Collaborative teams have been nominated and short listed for this years NHS Stoke on Trent “Getting across the message” award. The team will find out on Tuesday if they have won the award for the creative and effective ways they have been getting the cancer message out in the local areas . Well done to all the teams for getting this far and fingers crossed you win!
People from all over Stoke came to the Hope Centre last Wednesday to join the Healthy Communities Team in celebrating a successful year.
Cancer ‘star’ Karen Henshall opened the event by sharing her experience of overcoming breast cancer. This was followed by presentations on the success of the project both locally and nationally, highlighting that the HCC volunteers had committed over 1000 hours of their own time to raising awareness of cancer in their local communities.
The Norton and Bradeley team shared a poem entitled ‘Check it out’ written by fellow volunteer Roy Tansley about the importance of recognising and reporting potential signs and symptoms of cancer. The Longton team performed an Oscar winning sketch to bring to life their experience of raising awareness of cancer in the local community and the Burslem team illustrated their artistic ability by sharing a signs and symptoms banner that they had created.
Jill Davies shows her appreciation to volunteer Paul Capewell, i wonder if she knows that is not the real Paul!??!
The Mayor of the City of Stoke-on-Trent, Councillor Jean Bowers who was also in attendance, shared her support for the programme and expressed her delight that it had brought together local people to address an important issue bringing much needed hope to the City.
Colorectal Surgeon, Chris Hall ended the event with an inspiring talk about the importance of the bowel screening and encouraged everyone aged 60-69 to complete and return the home testing kit.
Thank you to everyone who joined us on the day and a big fat well done to Jill for all her hard work in pulling together another successful event.
The HCC will be putting on a showcasing event on the 27th January 12.30 – 4.00 in Hanley. “Involve” will see the teams sharing their experiences of what it is like to be involved in the programme and guest speakers from the Improvement Foundation and UHNS will be explaining the importance of early diagnosis and cancer detection. If you would like to book a place please contact Sarah Walker on 01782 298055 or e-mail sarah.walker@stoke.nhs.uk for further details
To celebrate the end of a very successful year the teams came together on the 8th December for a Christmas lunch. It was great to see everyone together having a good time and to celebrate all the hard work the teams have done over 2009.
The Longton team have been to visit the local fire fighters. The team spent time with the different watches talking about the signs and symptoms of breast, bowel and lung cancer. Each watch made the team feel very welcome and supplied them with cups of tea and plenty of laughs.
The HCC teams have been busy over the last few months out and about attending over 50 events. Today the Norton team is attending a coffee morning in Bradeley Village. The Longton team are at Longton Town Hall tomorrow and on Sunday all three teams together with the breast and bowel screening team will be at the Samba Mela in Hanley Park. Thank you so much teams for giving up your time to help at all of these events, I am so very proud of you all.
