Peterborough woman with incurable breast cancer helps shape new support
Nes says the new information will give women the confidence to ask questions about their symptoms
A woman from Oundle who's living with incurable breast cancer has helped shape a new partnership aimed at giving women more confidence to recognise the signs of the disease, including after they've finished treatment.
Nes Reed was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer five years ago.
She has been volunteering with the charity Breast Cancer Now as a "Voice", taking part in strategy advisory groups and working as a Service Pledge patient advocate, making recommendations to hospital trusts based on her own experience.
The Department of Health and Social Care has today announced a partnership with Breast Cancer Now, the first to be confirmed as part of the Government's Renewed Women's Health Strategy.
"I think what it's going to do, it's going to go a long way to helping women have confidence to say, 'I'm feeling really tired,' or, 'I've got this symptom and I'm not too sure. I need to talk to someone about it,'" Nes said.
The strategy is designed to give women practical information to help them check their breasts, recognise changes, and seek advice sooner, particularly in underserved areas.
Women will also be given clearer information on the possible signs of breast cancer returning or spreading after treatment, along with guidance on living a healthy lifestyle afterwards.
Healthcare professionals are also being given extra training and a new toolkit so they can better support women once their treatment has ended.
"They can perhaps feel really confident to have that honest conversation to say, 'this has happened to me, and now the information that I'm getting is that I feel concerned, so please can we investigate it,'" Nes said.
The research behind the announcement
According to research from Breast Cancer Now, almost a third of women in England who regularly check their breasts don't feel confident doing so.
Among those who check less than once a month, 11% said this was because they didn't know what to look out for.
The charity also found that nearly two thirds of women diagnosed with incurable metastatic breast cancer said they hadn't been told their cancer could return or spread once they'd finished treatment for primary breast cancer.
Separately, one in five of UK adults said they wouldn't feel confident knowing where to find trusted information about breast cancer if they had concerns.
One in seven women in the UK will be diagnosed with breast cancer during their lifetime, and around 11,500 women die from the disease each year, according to the charity.
Survival rates are far higher when the disease is caught early, with almost 100% of people surviving five years or more when it's diagnosed at stage one, compared with 32% when it's caught at stage four.