Happy New Year and welcome to the first Answer Cancer update of 2024. Hopefully you will find some helpful links, news and information to keep you going through the dark and chilly days of winter.
Newsletter Highlights
· Book onto our range of training sessions. Courses are in-person or online.
· See pictures and hear about the highlights from our Winter Warmer event.
· Find out about about how Greater Manchester is working to make smoking history.
· See some of the information Answer Cancer is sharing during cervical cancer awareness month, Jan 2023.
Find out about the benefits of dry January.
Upcoming Training & Events
Free training sessions from Answer Cancer, the Greater Manchester Cancer Screening Engagement Programme! Different dates and times are available to suit you. We are now offering training through a mixture of online and face-to-face sessions, so please make note when signing up!
You need to register in advance to attend the sessions, but you can join as many sessions as you like. For a list of courses and register, please click here – Training Courses – Answer Cancer (answercancergm.org.uk)
Talk Cancer Courses
The 2024 dates for Cancer Research UK Talk Cancer and Train the Presenter courses are now live on the Greater Manchester Cancer Academy’s website.
Delivered by nurse trainers, these online, interactive workshops give you the knowledge to raise cancer awareness in your community so that you can feel confident talking to people about:
• How to reduce the risk of cancer
• The importance of spotting cancer early
• The national cancer screening programmes.
If you promote health and wellbeing in your community, the Talk Cancer training will help you make your conversations more impactful.
Answer Cancer Winter Warmer Champions Celebration
Great fun was had by everyone who braved the snowy weather to attend the Answer Cancer Winter Warmer Champions Celebration on Tuesday 16th January 2024.
Champions shared their stories. There were quizzes and prizes and we all learned from one another.
Champions gave us their suggestions around what we can do better to support them and we will be acting on these over the next few months. Lots of people wanted more opportunities for networking with other champions and we have a few ideas in the pipeline for this.
Others wanted more training. There are lots of opportunities over the next couple of months detailed above, but if there are things you need that we aren’t covering, please do let us know.
If anyone would like to present their work at a future event or run a session to help other Champions, please get in touch and let us know.
Greater Manchester is hoping to create a smoke free city region by 2030
“There is no greater thing that someone can do for their health than stop smoking.”
The ‘What Will You Miss’ campaign, features on TV, radio, and social media across Greater Manchester boroughs with a stark message for residents that data suggests up to two in three smokers will die early if they don’t take the steps to quit.
In Greater Manchester, it’s estimated that around 5,700 people die each year from smoking-related illnesses, with 150,000 smokers living in ill-health and almost 15,000 out of work due to smoking-related Illness. Smoking is the biggest cause of cancer in the UK, causing 150 cases every day.
As part of NHS Greater Manchester’s Make Smoking History programme, free, personalised support is offered for residents who smoke – including 24/7 access to trained stop smoking advisors via the Smoke Free App, which has helped 1 million people to quit smoking to date.
If you would like to know talk to a stop smoking advisor, get the smoke free app or find out more about stop smoking services in your local area, click the button below.
| FIND OUT MORE |
January is cervical cancer awareness month. Help us to spread the word
Around 3,917 people are diagnosed with Cervical Cancer in the UK each year, but the NHS screening programme helps save around 5,000 lives each year! Although not one of the most common cancers, it is amongst the most preventable, thanks to the NHS screening programme and the HPV vaccine.
January is Cervical Cancer Awareness Month and Answer Cancer have been sharing important messages across all of our social media platforms. Help us to spread the word by liking and sharing our Facebook posts or follow us on X and retweet our posts. Don’t forget to tell you family, friends and wider networks about the importance of cervical screening and the signs and symptoms to look out for.
Are you having a dry January?
Every year millions of us participate in charity campaigns or make a personal resolution to lay off alcohol for a month at the start of the year. You may know that this can lead to weight loss, better sleep patterns, reduce blood pressure, accidents and liver disease, but did you know that reducing your alcohol consumption can also help prevent some types of cancer.
All types of alcohol can cause cancer. Alcohol gets broken down in the body into a harmful chemical. It can also affect our body’s chemical signals, increasing the chance that cancer will develop.
Cutting down on alcohol can reduce your cancer risk. Making a few changes to your routine can make a big difference in helping you drink less. Click the button below to see Cancer Research UK’s tips and trick for cutting down..
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Social Media Update
As part of our ongoing communication with you, we will be merging our two Twitter(X) accounts to make things easier for you all to keep up with our news and stories. From January 17th 2024, we will be using our main Answer Cancer page @AnswerCancerGM and our Answer Cancer Champions page @GMCancerChamps will no longer be active. Please ensure that you are following our dedicated @AnswerCancerGM page and share with your friends and networks. Our AC Champions Facebook and Instagram pages will remain active. Any questions, please contact info@answercancergm.org.uk.
If you have any questions or queries please contact us using the link below.
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Follow us on X and Facebook. Like and share our page to help spread the Answer Cancer message.