Security guard Gilbert Morris will stop at nothing to talk to other black men like himself about cancer screening. He once defused a late-night fight in a Manchester club by asking five scuffling men whether they had had their prostate tested.
“It was like I had a magic wand that lowered their aggression,” laughs Morris. “They stopped in their tracks and put their fists down. Two of them said their fathers had prostate cancer and another’s uncle had it. We ended up sitting round the table talking about their fears of having their privates looked at.”
The success of this 51-year-old six footer in communicating the risk of cancer is being harnessed by health chiefs in Greater Manchester as part of the launch of a social movement to sign up 20,000 people as cancer champions.
The idea, led by Greater Manchester Cancer Vanguard Innovation, (part of Greater Manchester Cancer – the cancer programme of Greater Manchester’s devolved health and social care partnership), is to use people power to create a cultural shift in one of the UK’s cancer hot spots, and make it normal to talk about screening, healthier lifestyle options and catching symptoms early.
Working with the voluntary sector, the aim is to sign up 5,000 cancer champions by autumn 2017, and to reach 20,000 by 2019. Mobilising this cancer army is one of a series of measures to cut premature cancer deaths in the area by 1,300 by 2021.
The cancer death rate in Greater Manchester is 10% higher than the national average, according to Cancer Research UK figures. Manchester comes bottom out of 150 local authorities for premature deaths (under 75 years). Cancer experts reckon that around 40% of cancer deaths could have been prevented by screening or lifestyle changes, the potential for saving lives in Greater Manchester is great, since 6,700 people died of the disease in 2013.
Cancer champions programme director, Jenny Scott, explains: “By creating champions we will create support for active lifestyle changes. We need to engender people’s interest and then it will spread like a wave. I hope that people will soon be chatting about what they can do – whether it be at the bus stop or a football match.”
This radical approach is the result of a realisation that health systems are not having an impact in many sectors of society.
Morris’s story underlines this. He developed prostate cancer in his 40s and could not find anyone to talk to about it. He volunteered with the Manchester-based Black Health Agency to highlight the heightened risk of the disease in the African-Caribbean community. As his experience shows, the mention of prostate cancer can stop people in their tracks.
Morris says: “Doctor does not always know best, because some men never go to the doctor. I will speak to men anywhere – at a street corner or a bus stop. I am not embarrassed about talking about it, because if I can save one life I have done my job.”
He joins 1,000 plus existing volunteers willing to become cancer champions. More will be recruited through formal links between local authorities, Action Together and Voluntary Sector North West. Interested individuals will be put in touch with voluntary organisations across the 10 local authority areas, and receive advice and training. Workshops and publicity campaigns are planned. A web platform is also being built where people can become a champion and share their experience.
The rewards of volunteering are rich according to cancer champion Zoe Ashworth, a 29-year-old single parent from Stockport. She spends around three hours a fortnight at a nearby GP surgery in a deprived area calling people who have not returned their bowel cancer screening kits.
“Volunteering gives me real personal satisfaction,” says Ashworth. “Of all the people I have called, every single one has agreed to receive a screening kit. My friends will not listen to anybody else, but they can’t get away from me!”
Findings from the cancer champions project, will be combined with other data and public health information, to create a national dashboard to help prevent avoidable deaths across the rest of the UK. It will also be shared with cancer alliances being set up all round the country.
Leading Greater Manchester’s social movement projects, Ben Gilchrist, sees the cancer champion work in the context of a step change in society, in which many people no longer take their health messages from a health system.
He is clear that volunteering is not a replacement for NHS and public services, or a cost-cutting measure but the “right thing to do” to empower communities.
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Let’s talk about cancer: the Manchester project that aims to save lives
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