Has Jade's story affected the way that people think about cancer?
We are very sad to hear of Jade’s death and our thoughts are with her family and friends at this devastating time. Every single death from cancer is a tragedy, and cervical cancer claims the lives of around a thousand women – mothers, wives, sisters and daughters – each year in the UK.
Jade’s brave, and very public, battle with an aggressive form of cervical cancer has received widespread media attention and encouraged thousands of women to seek advice about symptoms and screening.
I met Jade at our Pink Ice ball in 2007, and remember her as a vivacious and bubbly young woman. She could not have known then that her legacy would be great public service in raising awareness of the importance of cervical screening.
It is critical that young women take up their invitations for screening if we are to cut the death toll from cervical cancer. Last year, hundreds of thousands of women in the UK did not go for screening when they were invited.
Cancer Research UK is absolutely determined to reduce the number of people dying from all types of cancer. Through our ambitious 5-year strategy we aim to gain a better understanding of cancer, improve prevention and screening, diagnose cancer earlier and develop better treatments for the disease.
Together we will beat cancer.
Harpal Kumar, Chief Executive of Cancer Research UK
Related posts
- Jade Goody and cervical screening
- HPV vaccines and cervical cancer
- Are cervical screening rates really increasing?
Further information
- Information about cervical cancer, symptoms and screening on our CancerHelp UK website
- Information about our cervical cancer research
- A Cancer Research UK study in 2004 suggested that the cervical screening programme had saved 100,000 lives since its introduction in 1988
- Anyone with questions and concerns about cancer and cancer screening can contact our Cancer Information Nurses on 0808 800 4040 (freephone, 9am-5pm, Monday-Friday) or visit CancerHelp UK
Joe and Beth March 22, 2009
Dear Harpal
We have set up a justgiving page at http://www.justgiving.com/j4j. We have also ordered several thousand jade green awareness ribbons. People who donate to CRUK via this page can request these ribbons free of charge. We are not recouping any costs or charging postage.
We hope that if these ribbons prove popular that CRUK may look into ordering and distributing further batches as our own funds are very limited. We believe that if a national newspaper backed this then there is potential for hundreds of thousands of pounds to be raised.
We hope to hear from you soon.
Best wishes
Joe and Beth