Prostate and Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month drawing to a close
As many of our cancer travel insurance customers will know, this month, March is both Prostate and Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month. And both these cancers do require the much needed awareness these months can bring.
Prostate cancer kills 10,000 men a year, this year’s Prostate Cancer Awareness Month people are raising money for the Sledgehammer Fund to help Prostate Cancer UK crack prostate cancer. Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men, and is as big an issue for men as breast cancer is for women, yet it doesn’t get nearly the same amount of money for research. The money raised by Sledgehammer will help fund research to gain more understanding of prostate cancer, develop better tests and less invasive treatments. Treatment for this disease can have life changing side effects; therefore as has happened with breast cancer, less invasive treatments need to be researched.
With regards to ovarian cancer, one in 50 women will develop ovarian cancer in their lifetime. For Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month, keeping with the 50 theme, a 50’s challenge has been launched by the charity Target Ovarian Cancer. The challenge is to let 50 women know about the symptoms of ovarian cancer with the leaflet from the charity and to raise at least £50 for the charity, using a 50’s themed event. I think that the best thing here is the challenge to let 50 women know the symptoms of ovarian cancer, shockingly only 3% of women know the symptoms of ovarian cancer. Many people think of ovarian cancer as the silent killer, but if you know the symptoms to look out for and the cancer is caught early enough it is very treatable. It is not just women who are unclear of the symptoms, many GP are too so if you do have any symptoms mentioned here, don’t be afraid to ask you GP to “rule out ovarian cancer” if for example they diagnosis you with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), as some of the symptoms are similar to those of ovarian cancer.
I am so proud that Insurancewith donates £1 to charity, (click on the charity links of our web site for more information), for every prostate and ovarian cancer travel insurance policy sold. Without the exceptional work the charities do, we wouldn’t have the awareness days, weeks and months that they organise and promote. These awareness campaigns are vital to fighting diseases such as prostate and ovarian cancer, not only do they raise awareness of symptoms to look out for, and we all know the sooner cancer is found the easier and more successfully it can be treated, they also raise valuable money for research into treatments and cures.
I know that not a week goes by without it being awareness of some medical condition or other, but believe me they are very much worthwhile, and you never know one day you or a loved one may need that charities support.
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