In the UK, mouth cancer kills more people than testicular or cervical cancer put together. One person is dying every five hours from mouth cancer.
Award winning local dental hygienist, Christina Chatfield is aiming to draw attention to the issue by walking from Kirriemore in Scotland to Brighton in order to raise awareness of mouth cancer and to publicise widened access to dental care. On the walk which starts in Kirriemore on May 19, 2014, she will be raising money for the British Dental Health Foundation, Your Smile and Mouth Cancer Action Month charities.
Actor Steve Speirs is a patient of Christina and is supporting her campaign.
He said: “I’m backing this campaign as I was genuinely staggered to hear that more people die of mouth cancer than cervical and testicular cancer together. This sort of ignorance has to be addressed. We can’t rely upon “word of mouth”, so lets get the word of the mouth out there! Awareness of the fact may encourage someone to regularly visit their dentist and may indeed mean that lives can be saved.”
Christina launched the campaign last month with a reception at Emporium Art Venue at 88 London Road.
She said: “I would be delighted if you could support me in this venture. I owe my start in the business of dentistry to a small practice in Kirriemuir and I am now a practice owner on the high street of Brighton. It has been a long journey – around 500 miles in fact! Walking and talking are two things that I can do (one quicker than the other) to help get two very important messages out to the general public.
“The first message is about mouth cancer. I was shocked to learn that more people die of mouth cancer than testicular and cervical cancer put together. Why is that? Because most people are diagnosed at stage 4 mouth cancer due to late detection as they have not seen a dental professional until too late, many through fear and anxiety.
“That takes me on to my next message, Direct Access. Direct access gives people more choice and more options from whom they access dental care. The law changed on May 1 2013 but who knows about it? Hopefully a lot more people by June 19 2014.
“The more people I shock with the stats the more help I am getting. People such as the actor Steve Speirs who is a patient of mine and immediately asked if there was anything he could help me with. Yes of course there is, you can support financially or even join me on the walk for a few miles.”
For more information about the walk, CLICK HERE:
To follow Christina on Twitter, CLICK HERE:
You must be logged in to post a comment.