Newham Pilot Project

A man reaching for paanWhat was the Newham Project?

Cancer Research UK has recently done a project in the London Borough of Newham to raise awareness of mouth cancer among the local Bangladeshi and Pakistani communities.

We chose Newham because it is an area with large Bangladeshi and Pakistani communities and we know from doing surveys in Newham that awareness of mouth cancer is low in the borough.

The project was based on our work in Tower Hamlets, which was very successful.

Why Bangladeshis and Pakistanis?

Statistics show that Bangladeshi men and women and Pakistani men are much more likely to use tobacco or betel quid than the rest of the UK population. This puts them at a much higher risk of mouth cancer.

We want to make sure that everyone is aware of the symptoms of mouth cancer, and how to tell if they are at a higher risk. We want to work with the Bangladeshi and Pakistani communities especially because of their high risk of getting mouth cancer.

What did we do during the campaign?

The campaign involved:

  • Distribution of Bilingual English-Bengali and English-Urdu booklets and posters specially designed for the Bangladeshi and Pakistani communities.
  • Mouth cancer check up sessions with specially trained dentists using the borough’s mobile dental surgery.
  • Targeting key community networks to increase awareness of mouth cancer amongst relevant health and community workers.
  • Conducting a Mouth cancer awareness survey to track how knowledge of mouth cancer risks and symptoms is changing.

We have developed this project in collaboration with representatives from Newham Primary Care Trust. We have worked together to design the sessions so that we most effectively target people that are at the highest risk of mouth cancer.

We held five check up sessions between March and July 2008, which were very successful, both in terms of finding people with suspected mouth cancer and helping people to access information and support for giving up tobacco.

How can I get a mouth check?

All of our check-up sessions in Newham have now finished, but your dentist or doctor can look inside your mouth to check for early signs of mouth cancer.

They can also advise you on how you can reduce your risk of developing mouth cancer in the future.

For more information about how to register with a dentist or doctor, visit the NHS Choices website.

Results of the pilot and next steps

Out of 216 people who received a mouth check at our sessions, 11 were referred to a mouth cancer specialist at the hospital because it looked as if they might have mouth cancer.

Before we started this project, we commissioned some research to find out about people’s awareness of the causes and early signs of mouth cancer. We have repeated the survey after our pilot project so we can see how people’s knowledge about mouth cancer has changed during the project. We are analysing the results of this survey at the moment, and they will be available soon.

We will share the results from our project with the Primary Care Trust and others so that similar work can continue in the future.