BEAT ovarian cancer with Ovacome
Help us raise awareness of ovarian cancer!
Ovacome is
calling on its members to get behind our biggest symptoms awareness
campaign to date.
In 2008 Ovacome, working in collaboration with other women's
health charities, convened the UK's first symptoms consensus
conference. Leading clinicians and researchers alongside cancer
charities and women affected by the disease debated the evidence
and experiences of ovarian cancer. This resulted in agreement that
the following three symptoms are more frequent in women diagnosed
with ovarian cancer.
- Persistent pelvic and abdominal pain
- Increased abdominal size/persistent bloating - not bloating
that comes and goes
- Difficulty eating and feeling full quickly
These symptoms are frequently experienced by women, however when
they are experienced frequently, persistantly and severely
the likelihood of ovarian cancer increases.
As part of Ovacome's ongoing campaigning to make women and
healthcare professionals aware of the symptoms of ovarian cancer,
Ovacome launched the BEAT campaign in ovarian cancer awareness
month 2010, a country-wide initiative to encourage women and
healthcare professionals to recognise the symptoms of ovarian
cancer.
The BEAT ovarian cancer campaign is the first to engage GPs,
women and ovarian cancer charities around the world. It has as its
centre piece an easy to remember acronym:
B for bloating that is persistent and doesn't come and
go;
E for eating less and feeling fuller;
A for abdominal pain; and
T for telling your GP.
We are urging all our members and their friends and family to
ask their GP's surgery or local health clinic to sign up to the
campaign by becoming a BEAT friendly surgery; displaying the BEAT
poster and encouraging women with symptoms to come forward.
There are many others ways that you can get involved in the BEAT
campaign, from holding an awareness raising event to fundraising:
click here to find
out what you can do.