I want to be clear at the outset: I’m not angry with Jade Goody.
I think we’ve all heard the news that Jade Goody has been given only weeks to live, after her cervical cancer was diagnosed as terminal. It’s very sad. It’s hard to avoid knowing this as it’s been made news by all the mainstream newspapers, who this week published her story on their front page.
Why is this story front page news?
Cervical cancer has been struggling, like ovarian cancer, to be given the profile that breast cancer has. And the reason it hasn’t until now is because the number of women diagnosed each year is not in the tens of thousands like breast cancer. Therefore it does not attract the same level of government funding, charity funding and fundraising, magazine coverage and corporate sponsorship.
What makes me angry is how the British Government has suddenly decided to pour more money into cervical cancer screening. Coincidence? I don’t think so. Why does it take a celebrity to raise the profile of this disease and ‘force’ the Government to act? Are celebrities becoming more influential than patient voices? Answer yes, especially when that patient is a celebrity.
You may be saying, ‘well what’s wrong with that? At least some action is being taken’. But what about the other cancers that don’t have celebrity names attached to them, like ovarian cancer. 7,000 women are diagnosed per year, with a pitiful 5 year survival rate, yet because no big name is prepared to speak out about her experience, ovarian cancer does not attract the funding other more high profile cancers do.
The profile of cervical cancer just got a shot in the arm because Jade Goody has sold her story and wedding to the papers, and she’s done that because she’s hired an expensive PR agent.
What about the women who don’t have PR agents? What’s the vehicle for their story?
Hi Amanda – I couldn\’t agree more. I was infuriated by the photos all over the front page. We cannot really know people through the media in this way yet it seems we have access to this woman\’s bedside – and why is she a celebrity anyway? Max Clifford says she will be retiring from public view now – about time. Seems though that people do feel strongly for her. I was collecting for Marie Curie yesterday and quite a few people came up to me and started to talk about \’poor jade\’. One lady even showed me a text being sent round in her support! I do think this has served to raise awareness of cancer generally and would be interested to see if it has had an impact on the level of collection in daffodil week (I think it may from my experience yesterday). Interesting also to see if it affects the proportion of people who read celebrity magazines who choose to be baptized!?
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, I rate this post for 4/5. Detailed info, but I have to go to that damn yahoo to find the missed bits. Thank you, anyway!
Thanks for taking the time to discuss this, I feel strongly about it and love learning more on this topic. If possible, as you gain expertise, would you mind updating your blog with extra information? It is extremely useful for me.
With cancer being the 2nd leading cause of death, I want to see it anialated. I don’t know if this is completely possible, but we do have a beginning. We can learn and teach the signs and symptoms of cancer in order to achieve earlier diagnoses. Some cancers are curable if found early. This is why I want to teach the signs of cancer! Thank you for this site and please continue to teach!