This Black History Month, Wessex Cancer Alliance, in partnership with Cancer Matters Wessex, Wessex Voices and Dorset Race Equality Council, is launching “Let’s Talk About Cancer”. The campaign aims to raise people’s awareness of cancer, reduce the stigma surrounding cancer and highlight the inequalities that people from Black, Asian and Ethnic Minority communities can face when it comes to cancer.

Throughout October, we will be sharing information, statistics and experiences from the Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities, about cancer with a view to make people more aware of the risks and challenges faced by different communities, when it comes to cancer outcomes. For some cancers, there is an alarming disparity in the number of people likely to be affected from one ethnic background to another. Prostate cancer for example, is likely to affect 1 in 8 white men in their lifetime but for Black men, the risk increases to 1 in 4 men. Late stage at diagnosis for breast cancer in England is more common in Black African (25%) and Black Caribbean adults (22%), compared to White British adults (13%) (PHE 2016 statistics) and when it comes to bowel cancer screening; uptake is much lower in Black, Asian and minority ethnic groups.

The national cancer patient experience survey, as well as other surveys on quality of care and experience, tells us that people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic groups, have a worse experience than white people when it comes to cancer diagnosis, treatment and care. It is imperative that change happens and improvements are made. For many communities, there is a lack of health education and awareness of cancer, so this campaign will be sharing lots of facts and information, with links to useful resources, videos and further reading, to help improve people’s understanding of cancer, their personal risk and the signs and symptoms to look out for.

Colleagues from across Wessex will be supporting the campaign via social media and their own websites. We want to spread the word as far and wide as possible and we want to get people talking about cancer.

Visit our dedicated webpage for further details and links to more cancer information: https://cancermatterswessex.nhs.uk/lets-talk-about-cancer/

Download our communications toolkit for this campaign