'I want my community to get screened'

By Jane Elliott
Health reporter, BBC News

Targeting South Asian and Chinese women for screening

Next year Nighat Khan turns 50 and could become the first member of her family to attend breast cancer screening.

Like many women from the South Asian community, Nighat, from Leeds, admits she had no real understanding of screening or breast cancer itself.

She said this is not uncommon among her community, where there are a number of misconceptions about the disease.

"With breast cancer it is a cultural problem. Breast and cervical cancer are not spoken about.

Risk

"The people from my community do not think they are vulnerable, because the rates of breast cancer are lower in South Asia.

"And they think if it does happen to them that it is God's will and that the illness is something that is meant to be."

They think if it does happen to them that it is God's will and that the illness is something that is meant to be Nighat Khan

Statistics have shown that the South Asian and Chinese communities have among the poorest uptakes for breast cancer screening.

Nighat said as well as the cultural concerns, many, particularly the older generations, also had a language barrier to overcome.

She said women who did not speak English were often embarrassed if the information then had to be translated by a family member.

Now four films - in Urdu, Bengali, Cantonese and Mandarin - have been produced to make the screening process less confusing.

The films, which are out on DVD, will be widely distributed and will take women through the whole process of breast screening, explaining the purpose of the tests and using stories to help address and dispel misconceptions specific to each community.

Nighat and a number of other women from the South Asian and Chinese communities were enrolled to take part in the films.

And now Nighat is now actively involved in encouraging women from her community, including her own mother, to enrol in the screening programme.

"She hasn't been for screening before, but she says now that I have explained about it she will."

Appeal

Dr Lai Fong Chiu, research fellow at the University of Leeds, who led the project, said they hoped by appealing directly to the communities they can ensure people get all the information needed to make informed choices.

"The films are designed to support minority ethnic communities by enabling them to raise awareness of breast screening among their peers.

Encouraging women to come forward

"We sought to look at the communities' specific concerns about breast screening and then work with them to develop appropriate storylines for the films and involve them in the production process."

Julietta Patnick, director of NHS screening programmes said: "It is difficult for us to measure what proportion are not going for screening, but what we do know is that where we have high areas of ethnic populations the uptake is low.

"The rates of people going for screening are much less that we would have expected."

She said one of the major problems was that women from these communities did not think they would get breast cancer and she said this was one major obstacle they needed to overcome.

"In some ways it is not such a silly thing, because if we look at the rates where they were born, or where their parents came from then they are much lower.

"But as they move the rates change to reflect those where they live."

Anna Wood, of Breast Cancer Care said they welcome the initiative, which is addressing a problem of which they were well aware.

"We have consistently highlighted the need for black and ethnic minority communities to have greater understanding of breast cancer and to be breast aware.

"Amongst women we spoke to from these groups, just under half of those eligible for breast screening had never attended an appointment."

But she said that even if they are attending breast screening, women should still check their breasts regularly.

Pamela Goldberg, from Breast Cancer Campaign, said she was delighted to see ethnic minorities become a focus.

"Breast cancer is too often seen as a disease affecting young white women because those are the images seen in the media. It is important to reach out to diverse groups."