High Peak women urged to attend cervical screening

Cervical screen ing can help prevent cancer before it develops.

NHS North Derbyshire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) is reminding women in the High Peak of the importance of attending regular smear tests for cervical cancer.

It comes as new figures reveal that screening attendance has dropped in the last year to 73 per cent nationwide—a 19-year low which means 1.12million women did not take up their screening invitation.

CCG chairman Dr Ben Milton said: “As we see screening coverage go down year on year we are urging all women aged 25-64 not to miss out on a vital smear test as it could save their life.

“Cervical screening is not a test for cancer. Screening actually prevents cancer by detecting early abnormalities in the cervix, so they can be treated.”

Eight women are diagnosed with cervical cancer in the UK every day, and three women will lose their lives to the disease.

Thanks to cervical screening and the HPV vaccination programme, cervical cancer is now largely preventable.

Since the introduction of cervical screening in the 1980s, rates of cervical cancer have almost halved.