World Cancer Day is held every 4th February and aims to raise worldwide awareness and improve education around signs and symptoms of cancer.
Derby County Community Trust’s work around cancer diagnosis has two key strands: cancer awareness and screening promotion, and supporting participants living with and beyond cancer, as well as supporting those who sadly have a terminal diagnosis.
For World Cancer Day in 2024, we’re shining a light on their Wellbeing For All project, which is funded by Macmillan Cancer Support.
The project aims to engage different ethnic communities, with a focus on underrepresented and lower socio-economic groups.
Through staging workshops and sessions in community settings the project engages with participants who are classed as ‘hard-to-reach’ and have below average rates of screening attendances.
Regular sessions take place at several venues across Derby and incorporate physical activity with awareness raising messaging.
Further to weekly activity, the Community Trust also supports the GP network to hold screening clinics within community spaces, removing barriers of travel and unfamiliarity, which have seen hundreds of participants attend prostate, breast and cervical and testicular cancer screens.
As part of World Cancer Day promotion, RamsTV spoke to two of the community groups who have benefitted from the project, who both explained that the project had helped start conversations in their communities.
Narinder Loyla, a Community Activator within the Normanton community, echoed the project’s messaging about the importance of being aware of signs and symptoms, and ensuring that women were equipped with knowledge to notice changes in their own bodies.
This sentiment was also reiterated by members of the West Indian Community Centre – so much so that one participant had visited the doctors after following advice she had received through the Community Trust.
To find out more the wide-ranging work delivered by Derby County Community Trust’s Health Team, please head to derbycountycommunitytrust.com.
