Questions you may have about Sceptics’ Cancer Awareness Month April 2011

Don’t confuse it with cynics – the ones who sarcastically doubt human sincerity or like a good sneer. Cynics may come but are nothing to do with me! Sceptics are those of us inclined to suspend judgement, given to questioning the 'truth' of facts and soundness of inferences or are doubters of doctrine.

 

Cancer Awareness Months are now doctrine - routine, accepted and regular. 

 

Sceptics’ Cancer Awareness Month is the chance to step back, ask how well they work, why some cancers and not others, why some cancer sufferers and not others, how much is brand promotion rather than health promotion, what does cancer awareness really mean or why one tumour at a time?

It’s an opportunity to rearrange cancer awareness by NOT taking each tumour as a unit of interest but instead framing it in any other way you care to - for example, by population groups  – cancer awareness for men, for women, older people, black and minority ethnic groups – or by groups with high risk behaviours like drinking, overweight, smoking and inactivity. 

 

An appeal for ‘unawareness’ is already in the pipeline.

 

I’ve recently begun to wonder if symptom recognition is any use. If you have to know 80 symptoms to be aware of the top ten cancers you might get, why even start? Surely all you have to know is normal/not normal? Discuss….

 

How can cancer awareness be framed to include people with rare or non behaviour related cancers? We certainly shouldn't be ignoring them because they're 'difficult'. SCAM could bundle up all the cancers related to drinking, smoking, overweight and inactivity, making them much more obvious than they are at present. 

 

A debate on cancer screening would be apposite in SCAM too. People assume cervical cancer is common because there’s a screening test. Not so. The screening test happens to work well. Cervical cancer isn't a top 5 cancer in the UK. People assume there are only benefits to screening. Not so. Look at the PSA test and its use in early detection of prostate cancer, or, in some opinions, breast screening. And no one really noticed when bowel cancer screening was bought in. Why was that? 

 

Then there’s prevention and risk reduction, the future of cancer research, does 'the cure for cancer' have any real meaning, and what on earth is the ‘all clear’ all about? All sorts of cancer awareness related questions, a great variety with room for features, case studies, comment and debate, free of tumour specific constraints and nothing off limits.

The initial target is journalists, Press and any media. SCAM will only exist if people create stuff to publish under its umbrella.

 

Journalists, bloggers, editors, feature writers, commissioners of articles in women’s press, men’s press, health press, online – anyone really, who can reflect on what they know about cancer, how they know it and are willing to ask ‘But why?’ and ‘Can we do better?’

 

Through them, then, the whole outdoors is within reach ....

 

The specialisms of health, medicine and science will have a niche. Then there's womens' issues, men's issues, older people's issues. As cancer charity income is over half a billion pounds in the UK each year maybe financial journalists would like to look at that sector and see what the 'awareness pound' is buying us. Women’s health journalists might like to wonder how many women know that seven out of the top ten cancers to affect women are not gender specific and ponder the wisdom of concentrating on the ones that are? It's a pretty similar pattern for men. 

 

SCAM has no specific aim, no intention to get from here to there, but instead exists to enliven public discourse on cancer awareness which is currently based on stereotypes, partial truths and old entrenched assumptions.

Write something. Commission something. Pitch something. All for April 2011. 

 

Ask me if you are stuck for an idea!

 

If you are a reader rather than a writer mention SCAM to your media of choice. They want to know what their readership is interested in reading about. 

It’s a long time in advance but four Fleet Street dailies might have a go. They may be even more inclined if there is a groundswell of pitches and interest. Cancer Awareness Months are usually one small idea stretched to breaking point. This one promises a wide range of different offerings and no vested interests to respect. There’s even the chance to discuss heart disease and cancer in the same breath if you want!

This was arbitrary. It came from a train of thought involving the SCAM initials which are unnerving to anyone not sure if Sceptics’ Cancer Awareness Month is real. And then there’s April Fools’ Day too. Subsequently I have found the concept has some resonance and I’m stuck with my mildly flippant first effort.

 

Every month has some size of health awareness campaign attached to it except, I think December and August and those months are ‘free’ because they aren’t much good for coverage, so I missed them out too, like everyone else. SCAM does clash with Bowel Cancer Awareness Month but I can’t see it taking publicity from them – and the SCAM umbrella might give them the chance to benefit from third party discussion of bowel cancer awareness without generating it themselves and risk looking as if they might be taking a pop at other cancer awareness months where PR is easier and more widespread.

There is no organisation behind it. It’s just me and a notion that I’m sharing so you can pick it up and run with it in any way you think fit. I’d like you to mention SCAM as I can keep track to some degree but it’s entirely up to you whether or not you do, and how.

No. Some may, but I don’t, though I do questionthe way it is done. Some of it is so simplified it becomes catastrophising and sends hordes of the worried well to GPs. Cancer awareness is a bigger thing than just the months and does include public health and NHS input too. This would happen with or without the presence of cancer charities. All the same the muddle of the Months may also be detracting from the messages from NHS partners. I have no evidence of that. I'm just speculating Go and find some for SCAM, if you'd like.

No I’m not. Well, not totally. I do think they should be substantially rearranged with fundraising and health promotion separated. Cancer Awarness Months have such a fluid definition health advice gets lost, muddled with income generation for the related cancer charities. In my view cancer awareness is about the cancer, not the charity and they should be separate. I have grave concerns about the nature and content of health promotion messages that are linked so very closely to fundraising. To attract funds there has to be a big, bad problem - obvious really, because if it’s a small issue why ask for the money? But this means you are driven to say over and over how just how bad it is. Or disguise it in a pink haze of glitter. If you are doing health promotion you should endeavour to be honest, open, complete and objective. The two do not fit well together.

 

Why is there no All Cancer Awareness Month? I believe I know the answer but ask yourself anyway and see what you come up with. I suspect it’s to do with charity turf wars - joint fundraising will inevitably involve a jabbing of Directors of Fundraising glowering across the table at each other. An All-Cancer Awareness Month could work brilliantly as a health promotion effort though. Cut down on costs, increase capacity which all sounds a bit Coalition but, as it might work, and the media might enjoy a new twist on the old awareness saw…. Try it, all you single issue cancer charities!

No. The big ones are well established with thousands of supporters and media links. The chances of everyone suddenly preferring my model is vanishingly small. As the general public find the tumour specific cancer months a wonderful opportunity to affirm and validate their own experiences with specific cancers that’s not going to stop. In fact SCAM might give them two cracks at the whip, to do something twice a year, the second in a slightly different way. SCAM might be a good place to park all their difficult awareness issues or take a chance on airing them or maybe tackle a risky subject and try out some new ideas.

There is no organisation attached to SCAM to pass money to, or any infrastructure that could cope. If you manage to devise a fundraising objective based on SCAM send any money to wherever you want. Your only alternative is shoving money into my personal bank account which is as bonkers and as off-putting an offer as I intend it to look!

 

I suggest Macmillan Cancer Support would be appropriate since they look after anyone with all cancers and do not have an awareness month.