An NHS initiative that has helped community groups across Halton & St Helens to raise awareness of cancer has won a prestigious health award.
The Health Creation Alliance has given its Best Health Creating Cross-Sector Programme award to Cheshire and Merseyside Cancer Alliance for its Community Partnerships programme, which is run in conjunction with Halton & St Helens VCA.
The programme funds Social Action Leads, people who work with community groups to give information on cancer signs and symptoms and promote screening in a bid to find cancer earlier when treatment is easier and more effective.
More people die from cancer in Cheshire and Merseyside than the England average, but early diagnosis rates here have been improving from significantly below the England average in 2019, to slightly higher than the England average in 2024. The Community Partnerships programme is one of the areas of the Cancer Alliance’s work that has contributed to this.
The Social Actions Leads help facilitate discussions and conversations about cancer in grassroots networks, including art groups, old people’s organisations, schools and in workplaces. Across Cheshire and Merseyside 48,000 connections have been made with individuals and 200 organisations have been included in the project over the past two years. Examples across Halton & St Helens include using comedy workshops with Come Together Hub in St Helens, enabling men to talk openly in a relaxed and fun environment and supporting Angel Dust CIC to weave messages about early detection, signs and symptoms into their menopause sessions in Halton.
Jon Hayes, Managing Director of Cheshire and Merseyside Cancer Alliance, said: “Together with our eight Council for Voluntary Service partners, we have developed an innovative community delivery model to empower our communities to own information to reduce their risk of cancer mortality and seek advice when something is not right.
“Projects our Social Action Leads have worked with include art, fitness, cooking, laughter and singing workshops, outdoor activities, community theatre, and ambassador programmes, through to beauty and hairdressing students. The common denominator is local people being given useful health information by other local people that they know and trust. That makes an enormous difference to taking on board advice and acting on it.”
Sally Yeoman, Chief Executive of Halton & St Helens Voluntary Community Action said, “We are so proud of this innovative partnership and the work our Social Action Lead, Laura Bevan has undertaken with local groups, colleagues across the CVS network in Cheshire and Merseyside and the Cancer Alliance. This approach has enabled us to reach people and communities who are often missed from the important messages about screening and prevention, which is vitally important to make sure people live longer, healthier lives”
The award was given at a ceremony in Manchester.
For more information about the Health Creation Alliance and the awards, see Homepage - The Health Creation Alliance
To contact your local Social Action Lead, email lbevan@haltonsthelensvca.org.uk