Lung Cancer Awareness Campaign

The Government's running a campaign about lung cancer at the moment. You can't open a paper without reading a story about some celebrity whose parent died from it.

Ricky Gervais: Be Clear on Cancer

I think that's a good thing, the sooner cancer is diagnosed, the better the chances. But I suspect there's a lot of undiagnosed cancer out there, and wonder where all the physicians, surgeons, oncologists, pathologists, nurses etc are going to come from to deal with the rush. Of course, I'm an old hand at being cynical and wonder whether all that will happen is the worried well will step forward, get an unnecessary chest X-ray and go away again, wheras it won't occur to people like me, who have a tumour but don't smoke and are asymptomatic, to get checked out.

The truly frail, the poor, old, smokers, will probably be too scared to come forward. There's a whole blog in there somewhere about how all the public health messages in the world get consumed by the people least likely to be affected. Preventable ill health won't be prevented until the powers-that-be have the wit to build their message into the plotlines of the soaps, rather than into some exhortation on the side of a bus. When you're down on your luck, when life is already tough, these campaigns can seem to be just more nagging. That's what I think, but what do I know.

I read a story in today's Telegraph by Cassandra Jardine* entitled Lung cancer: If only I'd seen my doctor sooner. It reminded me that when I was in Basildon A&E just a few weeks ago one of the doctors asked about my symptoms. and when he heard I'd had a sharp pain in my intercostal muscles a couple of weeks before, he'd said, "Why didn't you come and see us 2 weeks ago?" The answer is, all I had then was a pain. I thought I'd pulled a muscle. I wasn't remotely worried about lung cancer, or anything else serious for that matter. I was fit, had no breathing problems, never smoked or worked in an asbestos filled or even smoky or sawdusty environment. You can't worry about what you're not worried about - everyone's worry glands are full to overflowing already, with real worries.

Despite all this, I still think it's a good campaign. Will it be effective? I hope so, because the statistics on lung cancer survival are truly appalling. In truth though, I can't help but think that the campaign will only be effective if the publicity resources coincide with a massive increase in NHS resources, targeted in this specific area. Otherwise all we're going to get is the current poor sevices stretched even further, and many people who were dying in ignorance will now live in fear for a few months, before dying, anyway.

Campaign Letter from DoH Medical Director (PDF)

* 30/05/2012: I've just read in todays Telegraph (30/5/12) that Cassandra Jardine has died.
R.I.P Cassandra.