Pan-London cervical screening campaign launches 20th January 2025 for Cervical Cancer Prevention Week

NHS Cancer Alliances in London team up with popular TV doctor to launch a campaign urging women to attend cervical screening

• Nearly 1 in 3 are still ignoring their invite with many unclear that screening can prevent cervical cancer.
• The London-wide campaign - fronted by Dr Nighat Arif - aims to address misconceptions around cervical cancer and screening, and encourage those eligible not to ignore their invite.

The four NHS Cancer Alliances in London – including RM Partners North West and South West London Cancer Alliance – have teamed up to launch a media campaign to debunk the common misconceptions about cervical cancer and screening, in a bid to encourage Londoners to attend their cervical screening appointment when invited. 

Currently, only 58% of 25 to 49-year-olds living in London currently attend screening. The attendance is significantly higher for 50 to 64-year-olds living in London at 70%. (Source: NHS Digital). 

The campaign – which coincides with Cervical Cancer Prevention Week (20 to 26 Jan) – will feature Dr Nighat Arif in a series of video and radio adverts discussing the link between sex and cervical cancer and debunking the common misconceptions about cervical screening. The adverts will be streamed across social media (Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat) and digital radio (Heart London, Capital Radio and LBC).

Women aged 25 to 49 who are users of the audio streaming service Spotify and are subscribed to podcasts with a high female listenership will also have the opportunity to listen to the ad over the next 7 days.

In addition there will also be some ads in gyms and across outdoor billboards near supermarkets and in areas of high footfall across London.

How can I help/get involved?

From Monday 20 January to Sunday 26 January, you can publish posts from your organisation’s social media accounts using the toolkit provided which is here (and in the campaign landing page).

You can also share the link to the campaign landing page, which can be viewed here: https://www.cervicalcancerpreventionweek.com/

Please use the hashtags #CervicalCancerPreventionWeek and #AttendScreening on all social media posts and be sure to tag RM Partners (@RMPartnersNHS for X, @rmpartnersnhs for Instagram). This is so our social listening tools can pick up the campaign's posts and we can measure reach effectively.

Colleagues working in primary care can inform their administrative and clinical colleagues about the campaign, so they are prepared to handle more questions about cervical cancer and requests for cervical screening appointments.

I have a question(s), how can I get in touch?

Please contact Sophie Ruiz, Programme Lead for Early Diagnosis at RM Partners on Sophie.Ruiz@nhs.net or Ricki Ostrov, Communications Manager at RM Partners on Ricki.Ostrov@nhs.net

DOWNLOAD: Press release document | Cancer screening advert 1 | Cancer screening advert 2 | Cancer screening advert 3 | Cancer screening advert 4