An NHS initiative that has helped community groups in Cheshire East to raise awareness of cancer has won a prestigious health award
The Health Creation Alliance has given its Best Health Creating Cross-Sector Programme award to Cheshire and Merseyside Cancer Alliance for its Community Partnerships programme, which is run in conjunction with CVS Cheshire East.
The programme funds Social Action Leads, who work with community groups to give information on cancer signs and symptoms and promote screening in a bid to find cancer earlier when treatment is easier and more effective.
More people die from cancer in Cheshire and Merseyside than the England average, but early diagnosis rates here have been improving from significantly below the England average in 2019, to slightly higher than the England average in 2024. The Community Partnerships programme is one of the areas of the Cancer Alliance’s work that has contributed to this.
The Social Actions Leads help facilitate discussions and conversations about cancer in grassroots networks, including art groups, older people’s organisations, schools and in workplaces. Across Cheshire and Merseyside 48,000 connections have been made with individuals and 200 organisations have been included in the project over the past two years. Examples in Cheshire East include [KL1] [LC2] Bollington Community Association, Beeyou Support Hive, MHA Communities, Time Out Group, Alpha Omega, HerPlace and the Hope Central drop-in centres, to name just a few. We are grateful to you all for what you do in your communities and for supporting this project to raise awareness of cancer.
Jon Hayes, Managing Director of Cheshire and Merseyside Cancer Alliance, said: “Together with our eight Council for Voluntary Service partners, we have developed an innovative community delivery model to empower our communities to own information to reduce their risk of cancer mortality and seek advice when something is not right.
“Projects our Social Action Leads have worked with include art, fitness, cooking, laughter and singing workshops, outdoor activities, community theatre, and ambassador programmes, through to beauty and hairdressing students. The common denominator is local people being given useful health information by other local people that they know and trust. That makes an enormous difference to taking on board advice and acting on it.”
Kate Little CEO of CVS Cheshire East, said: “The Cancer Alliance Community Partnerships are an excellent example of the reach the VCFSE sector has into communities, and shows that simple conversations can make a real difference to people’s health and wellbeing. We are pleased to be part of this groundbreaking Cheshire & Merseyside initiative, and I would like to thank our SAL, Lucy, for her hard work and dedication to supporting VCFSE organisations and communities in Cheshire East.”
The award was given at a ceremony in Manchester.
For more information about the Health Creation Alliance and the awards, see Homepage - The Health Creation Alliance
To contact your local Social Action Lead, email lucy.coates@cvsce.org.uk
