Football stars Millie Bright, Jen Beattie and Bethany England are fronting a new campaign (called “Check Her Out”) urging women to check for signs of breast cancer and recurrence – spurred on by Jen developing the disease at the age of just 29.

The proportion of UK women regularly checking their breasts for signs of cancer dropped from 55% in January 2022 to just 45% in April 2026. About 1 in 10 report that they never check at all – and the campaign will attempt to improve this situation.

So why is this important? The reason is that, according to the charity, around two thirds of breast cancer cases in England are found through breast-checking and getting unusual changes checked by a GP. Another factor to bear in mind is that breast cancer cases are on the rise – by 2040, 70,300 women will be diagnosed with this disease every year in the UK, making it crucial women make breast checking a habit.

This is not just a local trend – major global analyses published in The Lancet Oncology and reports by the World Health Organization indicate that worldwide breast cancer cases are actually projected to surge by roughly 38% to 55% by 2050.

The UK’s leading breast cancer charity, Breast Cancer Now, says the decline in breast checking behaviors is a cause for concern as anyone can get breast cancer … and that 1 in 7 women in the UK will develop it in their lifetime.

Breast Awareness

In England, as I say, around two-thirds of breast cancers are found by women breast checking, and when it’s found early, treatment is much more likely to be successful. ‘Breast awareness’ is the current official recommendation, encouraging you to get to know how your chest normally looks and feels so you can spot any unusual changes. This works for the majority – but some find it ‘a bit vague’. The bottom line is that ‘anything is better than nothing’ so choose the method that suits you.

SWF’s Cllr Lisa Kelly is a trailblazer. She spotted breast awareness stickers from the ‘CoppaFeel’ charity campaign … so she checked herself after work and found changes, leading to a life-saving early diagnosis. For years now she has been supporting the Tickled Pink breast cancer campaign, thereby ensuring more residents share her experience of an early diagnosis and a good outcome.

There are several reasons women don’t regularly check their breasts including:

• Forgetting: The most common reason cited is simply forgetting or not having a set routine.
• Lack of Confidence: Many women feel unsure about what changes to look for.
• Discomfort: Some individuals feel uneasy or embarrassed touching their breasts.

Backed by women’s football stars, the Breast Cancer Now charity is encouraging everyone to check their breasts regularly, saying it’s as simple as TLC; Touch your breasts, look for changes and check anything new or unusual with a GP.

Those who want more advice and support can visit the The Lady McAdden Breast Cancer Trust (located near Southend in Leigh-on-Sea) which provides free, confidential 1-to-1 appointments with specialist nurses to teach people aged 16 and over ‘breast awareness’ and how to check their breasts and chests, recognize what is normal, and spot unusual changes early.

As ever, prevention is better than cure and Cancer Research UK (CRUK) gives excellent advice on reducing your risk of breast cancer. CRUK goes on to say: “The current evidence suggests that breast screening reduces the number of deaths from breast cancer by about 1,300 a year in the UK” – it lowers mortality by 33%.

“Breast screening saves lives”

In the UK, you automatically get your first routine NHS breast screening invitation between the ages of 50 and 53. You do not always get called right on your 50th birthday, but the first appointment is guaranteed to arrive by your 53rd birthday, provided you are registered with a GP.

To qualify for NHS breast screening under 50, you must be assessed as having a higher-than-average risk of breast cancer due to a strong family history or specific gene mutations (such as BRCA1 or BRCA2) – although there is pressure to widen the net as a number of high-risk women are missed when assessed solely by these criteria.

Screening in SWF is a sore point at present. Few of you will be unaware that, due to a managerial blunder, the NHS mobile breast screening unit which was due to come to SWF this year, has been ‘postponed’. Those responsible for providing the service want to delay it for a further three years citing absence of a suitable site. My experience is that there is no shortage of sites in SWF as there is a general realisation that this is a service which is beneficial to the town. I have spoken to and corresponded with the General Manager of Breast Services … who was appointed in 2020 according to LinkedIn – the same year the NHS Health Clinic in SWF (where the mobile breast screening unit used to be ‘parked’) was sold off to the private sector – so she’s had plenty of time to tackle this issue. I was not impressed! There was absolutely no grasp of the scale of the problem and zero sense of urgency. Notwithstanding its attempts to put the blame for this debacle on others, the NHS is ‘the weakest link’ here.

Here in the real world, there’s a very different take on this matter. I bumped into some of my former patients last week. One said that there was always a ‘buzz’ in the town when the mobile unit arrived – the news spread fast by word of mouth which resulted in lots of people phoning for appointments. Another said that she always attended the South Woodham unit because she worked in the town and she could attend her appointments and be back at work within half an hour.

A third said that, although she has a car, she’d missed her last screening appointment as she couldn’t face the prospect of parking at Broomfield Hospital

There have also been some interesting letters to the editor e.g.:

“Having been invited to attend a breast screening appointment myself at Broomfield hospital recently, I found that the round trip from my home to the hospital by bus (recommended by the hospital due to difficulties in parking) would take 5 hours.

I rang the screening department and asked if there was a closer location I could attend because of the difficulties in attending Broomfield by bus, and was offered Witham or Colchester! The practitioner advised that another option, which some women had taken because of transport problems, would be to defer the appointment until an alternative site for the mobile unit was found in SWF, but she was not hopeful of this happening as talks had already been ongoing for 3 years. When I expressed concern that women were being denied potentially lifesaving screening because of inadequate provision in SWF, she suggested that it would help them to do what they had been trained to do if I added my voice to the people who are already campaigning to get the breast screening unit returned to South Woodham Ferrers.”

… and here’s a comment from a public spirited resident …

“I clearly remember the town meeting where the proposal to move all GP services to the new CVMC was discussed. Promises were made that we would have better access to services without having to travel so far. I drive for the local Community Care Scheme, I have spoken to a number of ladies who have received appointments for the screening unit in North Melbourne, Chelmsford.

The ladies had no idea where North Melbourne is and were disappointed to discover that you cannot get there easily on public transport from SWF.”

For decades the NHS has been promising that it will bring care closer to the patient. The South Woodham Ferrers Health & Social Care Group published their report on ‘Accessibility to Healthcare Services’ in the area which advised “Reduce unnecessary travel” and “Expand and promote community-based services.” The report concluded: ” Transport difficulties, particularly for those reliant on public transportation and parking limitations for those who use a car emerged as key challenges within the data.” The attitude of NHS (ESNEFT) Breast Services flies in the face of these recommendations. ‘Breast Disservices’ might be a better name.

The advice at present is keep going with ‘breast awareness’ as there’s no screening available in SWF. That said, the fight for a less discriminatory deal for the town goes on.

Dr John Cormack