Campaign wins life-saving award

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A life-saving campaign aimed at lesbian and bisexual women and developed by the Lesbian & Gay Foundation and the University of Salford has won a national award.

‘Are you ready for your screen test?’ worked to dispel the myths around cervical screening for gay and bisexual women, raise awareness that they do need regular cervical screening and encourage then to get a test. It was awarded the top accolade at the Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust 2011 Cervical Screening Awards.

The 12-month project was funded by the NHS Cervical Screening programme and engaged with women using famous films and humour through a range of communications channels including viral videos, radio and print advertising, games and media relations.

Before the campaign was run, fewer than half of the women (49 per cent) had been for a cervical smear test within NHS recommended timescales (within three years for women aged 25-49 and within five years for women aged 50-64). Afterwards, the figure was 73 per cent. Its results also included 96 per cent of women believing that the campaign was effective. Almost all of the participants (93 per cent) believed that more needed to be done to train health professionals in the needs of lesbian, gay and bisexual women around cervical screening.

Dr Paula Ormandy, Senior Lecturer at the University of Salford’s School of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Work, and Dr Ben Light, Professor of Digital Media, worked on the campaign. Paula said: “The project provides clear evidence that innovative and thoughtfully targeted media and outreach based campaigns can work, especially where organisations that have expert knowledge of the target group, such as the LGF in this case, are engaged.”

“Countless lives have been put at risk for years because of the myth that lesbian and bisexual women don’t need cervical screening,” said Annie Emery, The Lesbian & Gay Foundation’s Programmes Manager. “The success of this campaign in the North West highlights the overwhelming need for, and benefit of, targeted campaigns on a wider scale.

And Robert Music, Director of Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust added: “This was innovative, creative and very well targeted. Its results were extremely positive.”