Published on 12 June 2024
Cheshire and Merseyside Cancer Alliance is in the running for a national award for its work with communities to promote awareness of cancer and the benefits of screening.
Its Community Partnerships team has been collaborating with Community and Voluntary Service (CVS) organisations across Cheshire and Merseyside to support grassroots groups in giving vital health information and the initiative has now been shortlisted for a HSJ Patient Safety Award.
The project will go forward to final judging in the Health Service Journal’s Best Use of Integrated Care and Partnership Working in Patient Safety category ahead of a national awards ceremony in September.
Over the 18 months that the initiative has been running, 12,000 individual conversations have taken place with people through many different community organisations.
The Cancer Alliance initially funded community groups to do this by giving small grants but then created Social Action Lead roles in each CVS organisation to work two days a week on pushing out cancer awareness information to community groups in their area.
One group is Sefton Baby Baskets, a volunteer-led charity which supports pregnant women and families, victims of domestic abuse, refugee and asylum seekers, teenage parents, single mothers, and low-income families. Its programme now includes messaging on the importance of people checking their breasts on a regular basis and appropriate information and expertise is on hand to support this to take place.
The outcome of the Community Partnership project has contributed to Cheshire and Merseyside Cancer Alliance (CMCA) being ranked joint top in most improved rates of early diagnosis in England over the past year.
The Cancer Alliance’s Managing Director Jon Hayes said the project helped communities to understand the importance of coming forward early with possible symptoms of cancer, which is vital in treatment being easier and more successful. He added that CVS organisations helped to pass this information to a wider range of community groups and individuals.
Jon said: “We are delighted that our Community Partnership initiative has been highlighted in this award shortlist and we thank all the CVS organsations and groups which have been involved in it. It is a very important project bringing vital cancer information to people who need it most.
“Knowledge is power in having the confidence to come forward early with potential signs of cancer to be checked out. Having this knowledge given to you by a friend or trusted community member has much greater impact than if it is delivered by an external public sector organisation so, over time, more and more people will have a heightened awareness of cancer.”
The CVS organistions which have partnered in the scheme are: One Knowsley, Warrington Voluntary Action, Cheshire West Voluntary Action, CVS Cheshire East, Halton and St Helens Voluntary Community Action, One Knowsley, Liverpool Charity and Voluntary Services, Sefton Council for Voluntary Services and Wirral CVS.