Cancer Awareness Campaigns
Raising public awareness of cancer signs, symptoms and screening programmes can support the earlier diagnosis of cancer. Read about our activity to promote cancer awareness through campaigns across the UK, including our approach, key messages, resources and campaign evaluations.
To reduce late-stage cancer diagnosis, we need to support people to attend cancer screening and talk to their GP about any unusual symptoms they experience. Our Early Diagnosis Waterfall shows how campaigns are a vital tool to drive this shift. Running campaigns can raise awareness of cancer symptoms, promote screening programmes and address any misconceptions or barriers to seeking help.
We support national campaigns by developing campaign messaging, ensuring healthcare professionals are prepared and promoting campaign materials and resources. We also evaluate our campaigns to ensure we’re driving progress and learn how to make future campaigns more effective. Find out more about specific campaigns below.
England
NHS England raises awareness of signs and symptoms of cancer to drive earlier diagnosis through their Help Us Help You campaigns.
Be Clear on Cancer campaigns
Historical campaigns aimed at raising awareness of signs and symptoms and encouraging them to see their GP.
Northern Ireland
We work with the Public Health Agency to produce cancer awareness campaigns which meet the needs of Northern Ireland. We’re currently supporting a cancer screening campaign to encourage eligible people to take part in the bowel, breast and cervical screening programmes.
Scotland
We promote cancer awareness campaigns in Scotland by supporting national campaigns such as the historical Detect Cancer Early campaign or Be the Early Bird.
Wales
We support cancer symptom awareness campaigns in Wales to encourage help seeking and drive the earlier diagnosis of cancer. Currently, we’re focussing on the earlier diagnosis of lung cancer with a campaign to raise awareness of symptoms and encourage help seeking among people aged over 50 living in more deprived areas.
Frequently asked questions
How is health service capacity considered as part of campaigns?
All campaigns are planned in partnership with the relevant national health system with stakeholder input. During campaigns, GP practices may experience a slight increase in the number of people presenting with symptoms or questions about cancer screening. There may also be an impact felt in secondary care services too. Whilst we can’t predict the scale of the impact for individual campaigns, evaluations of previous campaigns suggest it’s usually minimal.
Where can I find resources to display and share?
You can find a range of patient and healthcare professional resources to download or order for free from our Publications page. Displaying leaflets can ensure your patients stay informed and raise awareness of symptoms and screening programmes.
How are health inequalities considered as part of campaign?
We draw on the latest evidence to ensure campaigns are reaching groups who are most likely to be affected by cancer and may be facing barriers.
For cancer symptoms campaigns, we often focus on people over 50 years old from lower socioeconomic groups. For screening campaigns, we will focus on people who are eligible for the relevant programme.
We also ensure campaigns include a range of accessible resources including EasyRead leaflets and BSL content.