LIFE'S A BITCH: Screening tests for cervical cancer should be standardised across UK
Jade Goody will be turning in her grave.
And so could you be if you're English, under 25 and unlucky enough to fall prey to cervical cancer.
Despite a huge campaign backed by Jade, the Government has just decided that young women in England will not be routinely screened for cervical cancer from the age of 20. The Department of Health has just decided it is not in your best interests.
So you won't get a letter inviting you to go along for a smear test until you are 25.
Cervical smear tests save many lives every year by alerting doctors to a potential cancer in the very early stages.it is a fact that early detection and treatment can prevent around 75 per cent of cervical cancers developing.
Cervical cancer is extremely rare among women under 30. But look at what happened to Jade. Tragically, the reality TV celebrity WAS screened - but chose to ignore warnings of pre-cancerous cells until it was too late.
Her death at 27 shocked many women who had always believed cervical cancer was a disease of middle age. But health chiefs say they have carried out an expert review - and that screening women under the age of 25 would do more harm than good.
Leading specialists say it is so difficult to identify accurately in a young woman, there is a danger that some could be unnecessarily treated. But what I don't understand, then, is why women aged 20 to 25 who live in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland ARE screened.
Leading sexual health agency Marie Stopes International doesn't either - and has voiced its "extreme disappointment" at the decision.
Why isn't screening being standardised across the UK? If it's not accurate enough for English women, then why is it still being carried out routinely on their counterparts in the rest of the British Isles?
Why should one 20-year-old be given access to the smear test, and another not - just because of where they live?
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