Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she has taken to promote self examination for cancer.

Since Autumn 2020, NHS England has run the ‘Help Us, Help You’ (HUHY) campaigns, and it will continue to run them. The campaigns use a series of TV adverts, social media posts and billboards to promote and encourage people to get in touch with their general practitioner (GP) if they notice or are worried about symptoms that could be cancer.

NHS England also funds community engagement events which share the same aim and works with partners to encourage body awareness and share information about cancer at moments during people’s everyday lives; for example, a recent partnership with Morrisons supermarket to include cancer messaging on their home-brand underwear labels.

The NHS website outlines the importance of being aware of new or worrying symptoms in a person’s health and the importance of speaking to a GP to initiate investigations early. The relevant page is available at the following link:

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/cancer/symptoms/