This May, we are Getting Lippy with gynaecological cancer charity Eve Appeal. Their vision is bold and ambitious but simple at its core: to make gynaecological cancers a thing of the past.
We are proud to support any campaign that can highlight health issues and we want to help raise money to support life saving research. Throughout that month of May when you purchase a Replenishing Lip Balm,10% of the sales will be donated to the campaign.
Funds raised will go towards life-saving research into the prevention and earlier diagnosis of all five gynaecological cancers;womb, ovarian, cervical, vulval and vaginal. Every year the charity joins with some of the UK’s leading health and beauty brand’s and we are thrilled to be amongst those brands for this year’s campaign.
Aside from raising much needed funds, the charity also helps to raise awareness on the topic, encouraging people to seek medical help and not dismiss symptoms too easily.
The Eve Appeal published new survey findings to launch its Get Lippy campaign. The survey (Yougov) found a worrying lack of timely knowledge about gynaecological cancers, conditions and symptoms, with only 7% of people having knowledge of gynaecological symptoms before they personally experienced them or they affected a loved one, and 5% of people believing they had knowledge of the gynaecological cancers (womb, ovarian, cervical, vulval and vaginal).
Nearly 4 in 10 (38%) surveyed said they wished they had been taught more about the gynaecological symptoms to look out for, either at home or at school, and over a third of them (35%) wished they had been taught more about gynaecological health conditions.
Also significant was the lack of knowledge about Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) and cervical screening, the test which looks for the virus and helps prevent cervical cancer from developing. HPV is responsible for 99.8% of cases of cervical cancer, nearly 70% of cases of vulval cancer and over half of vaginal cancers. Less than a quarter of women surveyed felt they had a good understanding of cervical screening before it happened to them or a friend or family member (23%), and only 5% of women had a good understanding of HPV.
HPV is an extremely common virus which can be contracted by any skin-to-skin sexual contact. Usually, people’s immune systems can clear the virus on their own howeverhigh-risk HPV infections which don’t clear can lead cells to turn cancerous. There is a national HPV vaccination programme which targets certain strains of HPV to reduce the risk of related cancers developing.
The HPV vaccination is offered to all children aged 12 and 13 at school in Year 8, and for people aged up to 25 through GP practices, and up to 45 for men who have sex with men through sexual health clinics. It doesn’t protect against all strains of HPV so attending cervical screening appointments when invited, as well as getting any worrying symptoms checked by a doctor, is still vital.
Get Lippy raises awareness of the key symptoms, breaks down the taboos that stop people accessing medical help, and raises money to fund research into the prevention and earlier diagnosis of all five gynae cancers.
You can support by purchasing our Replenishing Lip Balm here.
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The YouGov plc survey was conducted online. Total sample size was 2078 adults. Fieldwork was undertaken between 30th and 31st March 2023. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all UK adults (aged 18+).
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Other statistics are from Cancer Research UK.
