Women Encouraged to Check Out New Cervical Screening Test.

BY DANIELLE RIES

Women in the Hunter region are being urged to undertake a Cervical Screening Test after reports found more than one million women across Australia are overdue to undergo a test.

The chief cancer officer and health officer have joined forces with Cancer Council NSW and Family Planning NSW in an attempt to get the message of a new cervical cancer test across to women.

A Pap test can help reduce cervical cancer deaths by at least 20 percent as early detection can help save lives.

A Pap test is supposed to be taken every 5 years after the age of 18 in order to detect the human papillomavirus which may cause cervical cancer.

Women are being encouraged to make an appointment with their general GP to discuss the new Cervical Screening Test and to book a test.

Program Manager for Cervics HPV Group at the Cancer Council NSW MEGAN SMITH says women are encouraged to book a test with whichever provider they feel most comfortable with.

"In the Hunter New England Region there's been about 57% of women who had a screening test in the last two years, and about 60-61% in Newcastle specifically have been screened in the last two years.

"So that means there is about 40% of women in those areas who are due now for their cervical screening test. They can book a test with their usual doctor or with a sexual health clinic."

She also believes the new test will allow for the detected of cervical cancer to be done sooner.

"The program today is changing to a new and more accurate test that will help better prevent cervical cancer. The first test that will be done is a test for HPV or human papillomavirus, and that's the virus that causes virtually all cervical cancer.

"This new screening will pick it up and it will pick up changes at an earlier stage than the current screening test does". 

Megan Smith has a general message for all women which urges "that if there is anything unusual... that you're worried about, you should go see a doctor because those symptoms should get checked out regardless of how old you are and how long its been since you've last been screened".  

Credit- Pink Ribbon Offical Website.

Cancer Council couldn't be happier

BY JESSICA ROUSE

The state government's record $100 million investment into Palliative Care Services is set to benefit regional areas like the Hunter with more palliative care nurses and give a considerable boost to programs already in place.

The funding will be spent over the next four years and substantially increase the number of palliative care nurses with 30 nurses and six doctors, and funding for 24-hour community care services.

"We're really excited about this announcement at the Cancer Council - we've been running the I Care for Palliative Care campaign now for over two years and we've had a lot of volunteers and staff gaining support from the community so it's great to see this funding coming through," said Hunter Manager of the Cancer Council Shayne Connell.

The council say the announcement is a very good step as substantial funding for palliative care is so desperately needed, and they're even happier because around 75 per cent of palliative care patients are cancer patients.

"Things like pain management, support for carers, and all those things people really need at end of life really goes lacking if we don't have the doctors and nurses available. Cancer patients take up around 75 per cent of palliative care workloads so it's a really important issue for us at cancer council and something we've been talking about for a while," said Shayne.

It isn't yet clear where the new nurses and doctors will be stationed.

World No Tobacco Day

BY JESSICA ROUSE

The Cancer Council are using today's World No Tobacco Day to shed light on the massive influence of socioeconomic factors in the Hunter on the prevalence of smoking.

Around 16 per cent of people in the Hunter smoke and it's been found the incidence of smoking is at its highest in lower socioeconomic areas and trending downward in higher socioeconomic areas.

It's no secret smoking can lead to potentially deadly cancers with 80 per cent of lung cancer cases directly related to smoking, but Regional Manager of the Cancer Council Shayne Connell says the socioeconomic factors are becoming just as much of an influence.

"If you look at different socioeconomic groups those rates vary dramatically - so from a higher socioeconomic area, smoking rates are as low as 4 to 5 per cent and in some other groups like unemployed, people suffering a mental illness, those rates can be upwards of 40 and 50 per cent."

Possible reasons for such a big divide are thought to include that those living in the higher socioeconomic areas may be more responsive to public health campaigns and more likely to use effective resources for quitting smoking and have a better environment in which to be encouraged to quit.

These initiatives don't always appear have the same effect on those in lower socioeconomic areas.

The latest research released by the Cancer Council show results collected over a long period of time between 1985 and 2009 giving a significant snapshot of the frequency of cancer and who is most at risk.

"We looked at lung cancer incidences in women and what we found is that it was fairly steady and there's always a 20 or 30 year lag obviously between generational smoking and lung cancer but from about 1995 onwards there's fairly big disparity between people in a higher socioeconomic groups who had lower cancer rates than those in lower socioeconomic areas," said Shayne Connell.

"With today being World No Tobacco Day, we're really highlighting this again and looking to different research to highlight some of the differences in how lung cancers affect the community."

Australia's BIGGEST Morning Tea

BY JESSICA ROUSE

Not that you ever need an excuse to enjoy a lovely cup of tea and a slice of spongecake, but today is the best excuse - Australia's Biggest Morning Tea raising vital funds for the Cancer Council.

Today thousands of people from across the Hunter hosted morning teas to raise money for cancer research and support programs throughout the region.

Now in its 24th year, Australia's Biggest Morning Tea is the Cancer Council's leading fundraising event and is the most successful of its kind in Australia. Throughout NSW, the organisation hopes to recruit 11, 100 morning tea hosts, including 1,100 in the Hunter alone, and raise nearly $5 million.

"It's one of the largest fundraisers for us at the Cancer Council in the Hunter and it's probably one of the easiest because people can get together, have a bit of cake and a tea or coffee and put a couple of dollars in the jar because very dollar raised goes to support people with cancer," said Hunter Manager Shayne Connell.

Cancer figures throughout Australia are staggering, one Australian is diagnosed with cancer approximately every five minutes - the length of an average tea break.

Before the age of 85, 1 in 2 Australians will be diagnosed with cancer and it's estimated that over 130,000 people will be diagnosed this year, an unbelievable 350 people per day.

Shayne Connell says all of the money is injected into cancer support services and research to help bring these numbers down.

"Things like transport to treatment here locally, financial assistance for patients, patient and carer accommodation as well as of course a whole range of research, 127 researchers, every dollar counts. Cancer Council is of course not government funded we are a completely independent charity so we completely rely on fundraisers like today."

Palliative care at an all time staffing low

BY JESSICA ROUSE

The Cancer Council are pushing the state government for more palliative care doctors and nurses to meet the needs of the Hunter as well as regional and rural areas across the state, as the state falls far behind the national average.

'Our Stories' has been launched this morning as a part of the 'I Care for Palliative Care' campaign - a collection of personal accounts from those who are currently utilising palliative care due to a terminal cancer diagnosis, and also from those who've received care in the past.

The 2016 Australian Institute of Health and Welfare report found the use of palliative care services is increasing and as the population grow older, and live longer, this use will only continue to increase.

"New South Wales actually has the lowest level of palliative care nurses across all of Australia so we need to increase the number of nurses by 129 just to bring us up to equal level with the other states in Australia - we also need at least 10 more palliative care positions to bring us up to level," said Chair of Upper Hunter Cancer Action Network Sarah Lukeman.

Local Hunter members of parliament including Charlestown MP Jodie Harrison, Maitland MP Jenny Aitchison and Newcastle MP Tim Crakanthorp, were presented with 'Our Stories' this morning, with the campaign also sent to NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard in a push to put an end to the shortage of specialist palliative care services across the state.

"Newcastle itself has problems with people accessing palliative care, but its even worse in rural and regional areas so we've been really lucky today to have MP's from across the Hunter here including the Upper Hunter, where I live in Singleton, all pledging to advocate for more funding for palliative care,"

Sarah Lukeman also said "across the state over 8,000 pledges have already been made and for the Hunter and Central Coast we have almost 1,500 pledges so we hope with the Dungog relay coming up this Saturday that we will get over that 1,500 mark".

To pledge your support for the 'I Care for Palliative Care' campaign, head to http://www.canact.com.au/palliative_care_pledge