Kenilworth medical centre urging women to have smear tests

As part of Cervical Cancer Prevention Week from Monday January 21 to Sunday January 27, Abbey Medical Centre will be hosting extra clinics for smear tests - which can pick up the signs of cervical cancer before it becomes deadly.

All female patients at the centre are being invited to book a smear test or to see Dr Jenny Barnes about any women’s health issues.

Raffle prizes donated by businesses include: a meal for two from Libertine Burger in Leamington, a free cut and blow dry at Nicola Smyth in Warwick Road, a ‘well-being’ treatment from Classic Hair and Beauty in High Street worth £100, a complimentary wash and blow dry from The Vanity Box in Warwick Gates, and a manicure from Emma Louise Nails and Beauty in Leamington.

The focus on women’s health is part of a national campaign by charity Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust to get more women to have smear tests.

The charity has said rates of cervical screening have fallen to a 21-year low. Just 71.4 per cent of women invited for testing in 2018 actually had the test done.

Robert Music, the charity’s chief executive said: “The statistics are highly frustrating and, coupled with rising cervical cancer diagnoses, an enormous worry.

“We cannot sit back and let cervical screening coverage continue to plummet or diagnoses of this often preventable cancer will rise and more mothers, daughters, sisters and friends will be lost.”