Cancer awareness session report
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The following report summarises the event sessions co-produced by Healthwatch Blackpool, Healthwatch Lancashire, Healthwatch Blackburn and Darwen with Aftathought, Empowerment and Macmillan Cancer Support to raise awareness about cancer with hard to reach communities across Lancashire. The sessions aimed to reach asylum seekers, the LGBT community, young people, ethnic minorities, adults with learning disabilities and older people.
The sessions, running for 20 to 90 minutes, included discussions with a total of 25 service users from different community groups. The topics were focused on breast and testicular cancers due to its prevalence in Blackpool. The event had positive responses, many shared their experiences and demonstrated what they had learned. The team felt that promotion of self-checking was successful. However, they argued that there could be more inclusion on the range of organisations that are available to support people. The discussions revealed that people with learning disabilities often had a negative experience with the way that health professionals engaged with them and this group wanted more easy read materials about self-checking made available. Some participants felt comfortable approaching medical professionals with concerns but for others, this was too daunting.
The report did not make recommendations and did not include a response from a service provider.