My husband, stepsons and male friends all fall into this age range. This is my target group. I discussed the subject of checking for testicular cancer with them, and I was surprised to learn that not one of them had ever done so. I then spoke to my female friends and asked them to speak to their partners, sons, fathers and brothers who fell into this age range. Again most said that they had never checked. I concluded from this informal research that there was a felt need in people for the opportunity to gain information about testicular cancer.
Having conducting some research on the Internet, I discovered that a survey done by Everyman found that almost 50% of men would feel most comfortable talking to their wife or girlfriend if they had any worries about testicular cancer (Everyman, Online). I produced a pilot questionnaire, which I handed out to a selection of my female friends. I discovered from these questionnaires that in most cases very little was known by women about testicular cancer, how to check for it and where to look for information. From this I concluded that it was important to direct my campaign towards women, raising their awareness and in turn they could educate my target group. Again these questionnaire responses clearly pointed to a felt need for my campaign. I have included these questionnaires in my report.
In the UK and Ireland in the 1990s, testicular cancer accounted for around 1 in 75 cases of cancer.
- Incidence was higher than average in the south of England and Scotland, and in the north of England, London and Ireland it was below average.
- At the health authority level, there was an apparent pattern of lower incidence in more urban areas and higher incidence in more rural areas.
- This pattern may reflect the lower proportions of white males living in more urban areas, as incidence is known to be much higher in white males than in black and Asian males.
- The areas of high incidence tended to be the more affluent ones – most likely reflecting the higher proportion of white males living in these areas, rather than any causative factor inversely related to socio-economic deprivation. (Government Statistics, Online)
As part of Saving lives: Our Healthier Nation, one of the Governments targets is to reduce cancer death rates in people under 75 by at least a fifth by 2010. To achieve this they are:
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putting in more money: £21 billion for the NHS alone to help secure a healthier population
- tackling smoking as the single biggest preventable cause of poor health
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integrating Government, and local government, work to improve health
- stressing health improvement as a key role for the NHS
- pressing for high health standards for all, not just the privileged few. (Our Healthier Nation, Online)
I found a lot of information available on the Internet about checking, what to do if testicular cancer is suspected, and lots of support groups and forums.
- www.icr.ac.uk/everyman is a campaign run by The Institute of Cancer Research to raise awareness and fund research into prostrate and testicular cancer.
- www.orchid-cancer.org.uk is The Orchid Cancer Appeal is dedicated to funding research into diagnosis, prevention and treatment of prostate and testicular cancer as well as promoting awareness of these diseases.
- www.checkemlads.com is Phil Morris’s testicular cancer awareness site. Phil has had testicular cancer. It provides lots of information in a very accessible way for men of all ages.
- www.tc-cancer.com is testicular cancer information site. It also runs a forum for everyone, from concerned people right through to families of men who have died from secondary cancers.
My local GP’s surgery provides leaflets on testicular cancer. These show how to self-check, what to look for and what to do next. Everyman provides this leaflet.
My campaign will target women of all ages. Raising awareness and providing education to women in checking techniques could help them to check their husbands, partners and boyfriends themselves, they could also pass information on to their sons, brothers and even fathers. This in turn would raise men’s awareness, allowing the men in their lives to possibly catch testicular cancer earlier, therefore increasing their rate of curing the disease to over 99%.
