'NI too embarrassed to report cancer'

Published Wednesday, 30 January 2013
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A third of people in Northern Ireland don't report cancer symptoms because they are worried about wasting the doctor's time, a survey has found.

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The research, which involved academics at Queen's University, added that embarrassment is a barrier for almost a fifth of people upon noticing a potential symptom.

This was found to be significantly higher than other jurisdictions, in the study which compared differences in cancer awareness and beliefs between NI, England, Wales, Australia, Canada, Denmark, Norway and Sweden.

A higher percentage of people here also said they worry about what the doctor might find - 30% compared to 20% in Norway.

Dr Anna Gavin, Director of Queen's NI Cancer Registry, said: "The good news for Northern Ireland is that overall, the study reported a high level of general knowledge regarding many symptoms and signs of cancer among people living here.

"Northern Ireland participants recognise 8.53 out of a possible 11 symptoms for cancer, with only Canada doing better than us.

"What is of concern, however, is that while 90% of NI people agreed that 'cancer can often be cured', only 70% disagreed with the statement 'a diagnosis of cancer is a death sentence.'

"This is important because there is evidence to suggest negative attitudes can be linked to delayed presentation."

Some of the possible symptoms of cancer include unexplained persistent pain, coughs, hoarseness, tiredness, sores that do not heal and night sweats.

However there is lower awareness of these in NI, particularly among groups including men, the very elderly and those with primary level education only.

Dr Gavin added that further work is needed to understand and address the barriers which prevent people from reporting symptoms as soon as they discover them.

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1 Comments
Lucky Cancer Survivor in Belfast wrote (113 days ago):
I am a 3 year Breast Cancer survivor and was very lucky that my friends eventually persuaded me to get the lump I had had for some time checked out. I went 'under protest' afraid of wasting the doctors time and also to avoid the potential embarrassment. It was a big shock to discover it was cancer as I had no other symptoms except being tired at times. Now that I am back at work and fine - I daren't mention the word Cancer in case I upset my line-manager - who complained without end about the pressure me being off with cancer was putting on her and her department, and now wants to be the only person in the company to have had to take time off work sick
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