Highly commended
Partnering for Impact in Cervical Screening
by Anthem PR on behalf of Roche Diagnostics UK
Summary of work
In 2023, NHS data showed 30% of women and people with a cervix who were eligible for cervical screening had not attended.
Charity and NHS research revealed several challenges preventing attendance, such as ‘didn’t want to have one’, ‘a bad experience in the past’, ‘embarrassment’, ‘fear of pain’, ‘scared of what a test might find’ and ‘worried about seeing a male doctor or nurse’. While these barriers are all different, women and people with a cervix were dealing with them in the same way: on their own. Social listening confirmed this observation.
To boost rates, we needed to unite trusted voices, connect women and people with a cervix so they didn’t feel they had to face cervical screening alone, and drive authentic two-way dialogue.
We created a campaign that brought together charities, NHS teams, public health and cancer alliances, community groups, micro-influencers and more to create a unified community sharing truthful discourse and providing comfort to women and people with a cervix. We admitted “yep, it’s not fun”, but with lots of others in the same boat, “let’s get it done, together”.
The result? An uptick in cervical screening test volume with around 100 lives potentially saved.
Judges’ comments
“Partnering for Impact in Cervical Screening” was a strong entry with well measured, thoughtfull outcomes. It aligned with NHS objectives and the judges got a strong sense of the partnership all pulling together. It was a massive step forwards for Public Health Wales to work with a pharma company and highlighted the huge importance of public sector working with private sector.
