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Campaign launched in beauty salons to encourage smear tests

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A brand new campaign in England has been launched in order for beauty salons to encourage cervical cancer screenings.

Jo's Cervical Cancer Trust released a worrying survey in January revealing that many young women are put off from having smear tests.

According to the charity, eight out of 10 women surveyed stated that they delayed or failed to attend a cervical cancer screening out of embarrassment.

Online beauty marketplace Treatwell has claimed that cervical screening attendance is at a 20-year low, but the number of women choosing to have intimate waxing treatments is on the rise,

To combat the declining amount of women having smear tests, Treatwell has teamed up with Public Health England (PHE) to launch the "Life Saving Wax" initiative.

Over 500 Treatwell partner salons across England will place posters and information about cervical screenings in their salons today.

Beauty therapists are also being supported in their goal to talk to customers about cervical screenings and provide advice on where they can discover the right information.

A study carried out by Treatwell of 1,006 women aged between 25 and 34 revealed that almost half (47 percent) of participants said that they feel comfortable speaking with beauty therapists about personal topics.

Three quarters of the people interviewed stated that they would listen to their beauty therapist's advice.

The director of Screening Programmes at PHE, Professor Anne Mackie, says that the organisation is "thrilled" to be partnering with Treatwell on the campaign.

"Two lives are lost every day to cervical cancer but this needn’t be the case. Cervical screening can stop cancer before it starts as the test identifies potentially harmful cells before they become cancerous and ensures women get the right treatment as soon as possible," Professor Mackie states.

"The decline in numbers getting screened, particularly those aged between 25 – 34, is a major concern as it means millions of women are missing out on a potentially life-saving test."

Beauty director at Treatwell, Liz Hambleton, explains that beauticians are "uniquely placed" to discuss personal topics with customers;

"We see thousands of women booking intimate waxes everyday through Treatwell, so when we heard that women aren’t attending a potentially life-saving test due to embarrassment, we wanted to see how we could change this," Hambleton states.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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"Just one conversation is all it could take to remind or encourage someone to go for their screening when invited."

Each year in England between 2016 to 2016, about 2,600 women were diagnosed with cervical cancer and more than a quarter of those diagnosed died from the illness.

A study published in the British Journal of Cancer claims that if everyone who was invited for a smear test went to their appointment regularly, an incredible 83 percent of cervical cancer cases could be prevented.

However, more than one in four women who are invited for a smear test don't have the procedure, says Jo's Cervical Cancer Trust.

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