An NHS double-decker bus will be touring England from Monday to encourage people to visit their GP about potential cancer symptoms.
In partnership with Stagecoach, the ‘NHS Bus-ting Cancer Tour’ will travel to five areas of the country where early diagnosis rates or cancer are among the lowest.
The bus will travel to Blackburn, Sunderland, Barnsley, Leicester and London between February 6 and February 10.
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NHS doctor and TV presenter, Dr Dawn Harper, who will be joining for part of the tour, said: ‘We know that cancers are more likely to be treated successfully if caught at an early stage and that’s why the NHS Bus-ting Cancer Tour is so important to spread the word far and wide and encourage people with potential signs of cancer to come forward.’
Teams of NHS staff, alongside nurses from Cancer Research UK, will provide expert advice from the bus to help make passers-by aware of the importance of earlier diagnosis and where they can go for further advice.
‘It’s vitally important that people are aware of what is normal for their bodies and that when they notice something isn’t right, they feel empowered to come forward,’ said Professor Peter Johnson, national clinical director for cancer.
The bus tour is the latest initiative to help drive earlier cancer diagnosis, as part of the ‘Help Us, Help You’ campaign.
‘We’re prioritising early diagnosis and have opened 92 community diagnostic centres that have delivered over 2.8 million tests, scans and checks including to detect cancer,’ said health and social care secretary, Steve Barclay.
Awareness- raising campaigns like the bus tour has impacted the number of people diagnosed with cancer, with a record high of more than 320,000 people receiving cancer treatment between November 2021 and October 2022.
‘With the number of people in the UK diagnosed with cancer set to rise by a third by 2040, awareness campaigns such as this, and the commitment to invest in community diagnostics centres, are important to help ensure more cancers are diagnosed at their earliest stage, when people are more likely to survive their disease,’ said Michelle Mitchell, chief executive of Cancer Research UK.