Cancer Awareness Day
Following on from the recent Women’s Cancer talk given by Anna from RocDoc at the Women’s Wellbeing evening on 17 November as part of Meath Enterprise week, we are pleased to announce our Cancer Awareness Day on Thursday 4 December 2014. The Women’s Wellbeing evening also included talks from Yvonne Stringer of Stringer Fitness on handling stress and maintaining a healthy lifestyle and Marian Wilkinson on her personal battle with cancer and resulted in a somewhat emotive evening.
We at RocDoc are keen to promote healthy wellbeing generally and wanted to make people aware of cancer with October and November being national and indeed international cancer awareness months.
Our first ‘bits and bobs’ day in November 2013 was a success but we want to make it bigger and better this year. The day starts when we open at 8am through until we close at 10pm and as with last year the day is being run in conjunction with The Marie Keating Foundation and their information unit and nurse will be available from 10.30am until 3.30pm.
We are keen for local businesses and organisations to become involved and support this day which we are calling ‘YOUR Bits & Bobs’ Cancer Awareness Day and they will be approached over the coming days to discuss how they can support the day.
Some interesting and staggering statistics that were given at the recent talk are below and we hope that people start taking their health and well being seriously and of course if they have any concerns discuss them with their doctor.
- As a general rule in Ireland 1 in 3 people will develop cancer during their lifetime
- Cancer is the second most common cause of death in Ireland
- On average 30,000 new cancer cases are diagnosed each year in Ireland
- The 5 most common cancers in Ireland are skin, prostate, breast, bowel and lung cancers
In addition to this general information below are some further staggering statistics regarding three primarily female cancers.
- Breast cancer affects 1 in 10 Irish women
- Men can also be affected
- Currently around 2,400 breast cancer cases are diagnosed annually in Ireland
- The risk increases as you get older with breast cancer
- A mammogram (part of the government screening for breast cancer for females aged 50-65) can find breast cancer up to 4 years before you might notice something personally
- Ovarian cancer affects over 300 Irish women each year
- Ovarian cancer generally affects women who have had the menopause
- Ovarian cancer can be hard to detect but can be detected through blood tests
- About 200 cervical cancer cases diagnosed annually in Ireland
- Cervical cancer generally affects younger women
- If you have never been sexually active then your risks are low for cervical cancer
- Cervical cancer is detected through abnormal cells found through getting your smear test
- A smear test can detect over 90% of potential cervical cancers
So we guess you may have a few questions about cancer. Pop up on 4 December and ask those questions. If you have never had your ‘bits and bobs’ checked, don’t know what you’re looking for or want someone else to do it then we are doing FREE breast and testicular checks on the day. In the meantime, some food for thought…
- Over 50% of cancers are preventable with 30% of that being through lifestyle changes alone
- Eat a healthy well balanced diet
- Limit you red meat, animal fat, sugary, alcohol and fatty food intake
- Try to keep to a healthy weight and take regular exercise
- Give up smoking
- Get your mammogram / cervical check (smear) when you’re supposed to
- Get a health check
So how can we help you here at RocDoc beside give you some information?
We can undertake an Advanced Health check for your peace of mind which will cover blood tests, your lifestyle, diet to name but a few things.