While I am fully appreciative and supportive of the NHS, one of my biggest concerns with the system has been their policy to not give women cancer screening smears until the age of 25.
However, it would appear that I’m most certainly not alone.
The family of Kirsty Winstanley, the young woman who died at the age of 23 - only 10 months after being diagnosed with cervical cancer, will be taking a petition with 22,000 signatures to Downing Street today. The petition, called “Kirsty’s Dying Wish”, hopes to see the cancer screening age in England to be lowered to 20, as it is in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The screening age was raised to 25 in 2003, as according to Cancer Research UK: “screening younger women can lead to unnecessary treatment and worry”. Personally, I worry more not being “invited” to be screened for cancer until I’m 25, and I’m sure there are plenty of young women that feel the same. Especially considering that there are 2,800 new cases of cervical cancer diagnosed in the UK every year, which boils down to 55 women a week.
I sincerely hope that the Kirsty’s family are able to make a difference at Downing Street, today, but I fear that 22,000 signatures and a young woman’s dying wish might not be enough. Unfortuneatly, the guise of “worry” and “unnecessary treatment” is just another way of saying that he NHS don’t want to spend money and materials where they don’t *need* to – and apparently screening young women for cervical cancer falls under those categories.
I sincerely hope my cynicism is proved wrong, and that Kirsty’s Dying Wish is fulfilled – for the sake of her family, her legacy, and all of the young women in England.