'Be Clear on Cancer' lung cancer awareness campaign: regional pilot
Evaluation of the East and West Midlands pilot for the 'Be Clear on Cancer' lung cancer awareness campaign.
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In January 2011, ‘Improving outcomes: a strategy for cancer’ set out the government’s ambition to save an additional 5,000 lives by 2014 to 2015. This was to be achieved through:
- earlier diagnosis (through increased awareness of symptoms and earlier presentation)
- better access to optimal treatments
A regional lung cancer awareness pilot was funded by the Department of Health and ran in the Central TV region (predominantly East and West Midlands) from 10 October to 13 November 2011.It consisted of various activities, including:
- TV, radio and press adverts
- 10 face-to-face events
- out of home advertising eg pharmacy bags and screens in GP surgeries
It was delivered in partnership with:
- former Cancer Networks
- clinical leads in local hospitals
- general practice
- public health teams
On the whole, the campaign was targeted at those who were both:
- aged 50 years and over
- from lower socio-economic groups
This target audience was selected due to incidence, mortality, survival and staging data that were available at the time for England. However, for some elements of the campaign, such as the media buying, a slightly older demographic of over 55 year-olds was selected.
The primary objectives of the campaign were to:
- raise the awareness of the signs and symptoms of lung cancer among the target audience
- increase the presentation of symptoms of lung cancer by the target audience to primary care
The hope was that by raising awareness and encouraging people with the promoted symptoms to present to their GP promptly, more cancers would be diagnosed at an earlier stage and may therefore lead to better overall outcomes.