Community stalwarts, religious leaders and group organisers are being urged to step forward to help promote the importance of cancer screening across the North-east.
Friends of ANCHOR is currently funding two cancer screening officers, who are working across Grampian to encourage more people to get checked out.
Working within NHS Grampian’s Public Health Directorate, Charlotte Murray and Chidi Ogwo are primarily focusing on improving uptake for cervical, breast and bowel cancer screening.
Of the three, cervical screening uptake is the lowest in Grampian with big differences in uptake across our communities, with the lowest uptake being 26% and the highest 84%.
Chidi said: “Screening is really important, but we’ve noticed it’s not something everyone is engaging with, partly due to the fact some people aren’t really aware what screening is.
“As screening officers, we want to get the information out there and help people make the decision themselves about going forward and looking after their health.”
Through research carried out by the University of Aberdeen, the screening officers already know some of the key areas to target, including ethnic minority groups, the Polish community and those living in more deprived areas.
Key city communities the duo know they need to engage with throughout 2025 include Sunnybank, Powis, Froghall, Seaton and Old Aberdeen – although they’re keen to stress their work is ongoing in Aberdeenshire and Moray too.
Charlotte said: “The purpose of our roles is to address screening inequities and tackle some of the barriers people face when trying to access screening.
“We need to get the information out there in a way that people will consume it – whether that be posters, postcards with information or out on social media.
“We’re using animation and film to let people know what to expect at appointments, how they’ll receive results and what their results might mean.
“We’d also like to be able to branch out and expand on the translated versions already available so that more people have access to more information.”
Now Charlotte and Chidi are calling on local communities to help them break down those barriers further.
They’re on the hunt for community champions – trusted local voices - who will help raise awareness of the importance of cancer screening among their local area, friends, family and work colleagues.
Charlotte said: “The Grampian Regional Equality Council (GREC) already has about 200 community champions that help support healthcare in local communities, and this is something we want to now roll out with a focus on screening.
“Being a community champion is a voluntary role, and it’s about helping to spread up-to-date and relevant information to members of your community – family members, friends, people you work with or people you attend groups with.
“It’s about getting the information out there, and then helping feed back what local communities are saying about the barriers and experiences they’re having. We can use that to inform future services and our work moving forward.”
Community champions could also be religious leaders, community centre bosses or group organisers.
How they choose to share the information is up to the individual – it could be an information day at their place of work, a stall at a supermarket or simply sharing it with their networks.
“We know how important trusted voices in the community area, particularly in reaching the under-represented groups,” Charlotte added. “That would be those in some of our more deprived areas, Black African communities and the Polish community – we’d be really keen to hear from those groups.
“We’d love to hear from anyone who can help us.”
In Aberdeenshire and Moray, some of the barriers to screening are different to Aberdeen – with access to public transport and the rurality of the area among the potential factors.
“Community champions – and community connectors, who manage the champions – play an important role in highlighting these challenges,” Charlotte said. “They live in these areas, they know the challenges and they can feed that back to us too.
“Essentially, they’re a bridge between the community and the NHS and other organisations that help to drive change.”
The pair are also adapting other resources, like an extensive online training programme NHS Highland developed in the summer, to make it relevant for the North-east.
Working within Public Health, the pair are out on the ground targeting communities to encourage screening uptake in breast, bowel and cervical cancer specifically. They’re also promoting healthy living and health awareness.
Cancer and haematology charity Friends of ANCHOR is funding the first year of the newly-created screening officers’ posts at a cost of £94,000. It is another step forward for the charity in early detection and intervention.
Chidi said: “We want everyone in Grampian to be informed to make the right choice about screening for them. It’s about early detection and early intervention. By detecting diseases such as cancer early, we can start the treatment process faster and hopefully people will get to lead healthier and longer lives.
“That’s our hope as screening officers – that the work we’re doing and the collaborations we’re part of can help push the work of screening forward and get people more engaged and making better-informed decisions about their health so they’re living healthier, and better, lives overall.”
If you’d like to find out more about being a community champion, please email info@friendsofanchor.org
To find out more about the cancer screening programmes and which tests you may be eligible for, visit: www.nhsinform.scot/screening