NHS England launches first advertising drive to boost breast cancer screenings

Women in England will be encouraged to attend potentially life-saving screenings for breast cancer in TV, radio and online adverts as part of the first NHS awareness campaign for the disease.

Women in the UK are invited for their first routine mammogram between the ages of 50 and 53, with further invitations arriving every three years until they reach 71, after which they can request screening.

It is estimated that the programme – which is aimed at people without symptoms – prevents 1,300 deaths each year in the UK, and figures suggest it picked up cancers in 18,942 women across England last year alone. Without screening, the NHS says, such cancers may not have been diagnosed or treated until a later stage.

While breast screening levels in England are rising, they remain lower than before the pandemic, with data from NHS England released in October revealing uptake was 64.6% in 2022-23, compared with 71.1% in 2018-19. Among those invited for the first time, the most recent figure was just 53.7%.

Now NHS England is attempting to increase attendance through a campaign supported by charities including Breast Cancer Now and Cancer Research UK, with celebrities, TV doctors, NHS staff and cancer survivors sharing open letters to women.

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Source: The Guardian, 17 February 2025