NHS : BREAST CANCER SCREENING

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN

Each year all women over the age of 50 receive a letter inviting them to attend their breast screening. But despite a 98% survival rate for women diagnosed at the earliest stage, 3 in 10 of these letters go unanswered.

The challenge was simple: how do we get women to open the letter and save the date?

The answer was to publish letters worth opening — a series of open letters from women in the same age, women who know have lived experience, including Victoria Derbyshire, Julia Bradbury, Shirley Ballas, NHS mammographers, and everyday survivors. Each one honest, personal and direct. Each one tackling the real reasons women don’t take action: the embarrassment, the discomfort, the putting it off, the fear of what comes next. Each one emphasising the need for early diagnosis and the increased chances of survival.

In the first week of the campaign, supported by Breast Cancer Now and Cancer Research UK, there was a 145% increase in visits to NHS breast‑screening advice pages and a 97% increase in clicks to the breast‑screening‑services finder, where women aged 50 to 71 can see where they can get screened in their local area.