• iconNews
  • videos
  • entertainment
  • Home
  • News
    • UK News
    • US News
    • Australia
    • Ireland
    • World News
    • Weird News
    • Viral News
    • Sport
    • Technology
    • Science
    • True Crime
    • Travel
  • Entertainment
    • Celebrity
    • TV & Film
    • Netflix
    • Music
    • Gaming
    • TikTok
  • LAD Originals
    • Say Maaate to a Mate
    • Daily Ladness
    • Lad Files
    • UOKM8?
    • FreeToBe
    • Extinct
    • Citizen Reef
  • Advertise
  • Terms
  • Privacy & Cookies
  • LADbible Group
  • UNILAD
  • SPORTbible
  • GAMINGbible
  • Tyla
  • UNILAD Tech
  • FOODbible
  • License Our Content
  • About Us & Contact
  • Jobs
  • Latest
  • Topics A-Z
  • Authors
Facebook
Instagram
X
Threads
Snapchat
TikTok
YouTube

LAD Entertainment

YouTube

LAD Stories

Submit Your Content
NHS Sends Vital Message To Anyone Who Has Ever Smoked

Home> News

Updated 12:33 19 Apr 2022 GMT+1Published 12:30 19 Apr 2022 GMT+1

NHS Sends Vital Message To Anyone Who Has Ever Smoked

The health service has addressed both current and ex-smokers as part of a potentially life-saving initiative

Emily Brown

Emily Brown

The NHS has issued an urgent message to both current and ex-smokers in England as part of a potentially life-saving community initiative.

Those who are most at risk from lung cancer have been invited for a so-called 'Lung MOT' in the health service's mobile trucks, which offer an on-the-spot chest scan.

In a release issued today (19 April), NHS cancer chiefs urged those most at risk to 'come forward as soon as they are invited' for the health check, noting 600 people have been diagnosed with lung cancer earlier thanks to the NHS mobile trucks.

NHS sign.
Alamy

Advert

The trucks will be visiting different areas across the country as part of 'the biggest programme to improve early lung cancer diagnosis in health service history', which is part of the NHS Targeted Lung Health Check Programme.

So far the 23 existing truck sites have issued up to 25,000 invitations every month, and a further 20 sites are due to go live shortly. The NHS explains the new additions will offer the capacity to 'invite 750,000 more people at increased risk for a check, in efforts to catch thousands more cancers at an earlier stage'.

Man smoking.
Alamy

Current and ex-smokers aged between 55 and 74 are also invited to speak to a healthcare professional and, if they have a higher chance of developing lung cancer, be offered a scan of their lungs.

More than three quarters (77 percent) of cancers caught so far by the trucks were caught at either stage one or two, giving patients a better chance of beating the illness as those diagnosed earlier are nearly 20 times more likely to survive for five years. In comparison, less than a third of cancers were caught at either stage one or two in 2018.

Advert

Dame Cally Palmer, NHS cancer director, stressed the check can save lives, adding: "By going out into communities we find more people who may not have otherwise realised they have lung cancer – with hundreds already diagnosed and hundreds of thousands due to be invited.

“The trucks are conveniently located to make them easy to access and it is vital that as soon as you are invited, you take up the offer and come forward for these potentially life-saving checks," Palmer continued.

New figures show only a third (35 percent) of patients go to their lung health check when invited by the NHS, but the NHS hopes to increase checks with the trucks located in supermarket carparks, sports centres and shopping centres.

As well as scanning for cancer, the trucks have also identified thousands of people with undiagnosed conditions such as respiratory and cardiovascular disease, enabling them to access the treatment they need earlier.

Advert

A long-term NHS plan aims to invite as many as 1.5 million people for a lung health check across the country by 2024/25.

Featured Image Credit: Alamy

Topics: Health, NHS, UK News, Cancer

Emily Brown
Emily Brown

Emily Brown is the Community Desk Lead at LADbible Group. Emily first began delivering news when she was just 11 years old - with a paper route. She went on to graduate with a BA Hons in English Language in the Media from Lancaster University before contributing to The Sunday Times Travel Magazine and Student Problems. She joined UNILAD in 2018 to cover breaking news, trending stories and longer form features, and now works as Community Desk Lead to commission and write human interest stories from across the globe.

Advert

Advert

Advert

  • UK doctor explains worrying reason they've had to open a ketamine clinic for children as young as 12
  • Donald Trump sends scathing message to Vladimir Putin following phone call between them
  • NHS explains physical changes you will be able to feel in 'last hours and days of life'
  • Symptoms of bowel cancer This Morning star ignored after being told he has 'weeks left to live'

Choose your content:

7 hours ago
  • 7 hours ago

    Man who killed twisted murderer Jeffrey Dahmer explains why he did it

    The notorious serial killer was killed in 1994

    News
  • 7 hours ago

    Elon Musk forms his 'own political party' after fallout with Trump

    Looks like the tech billionaire isn't done with politics after all

    News
  • 7 hours ago

    Woman who lives in underground bunker with no windows reveals how much she saves on rent

    At least she's ready for the apocalypse

    News
  • 7 hours ago

    Man who chose to live underwater for 100 days to see what would happen to his body reveals shocking impact it had

    Dr Joseph Dituri spent 100 days at sea in 2023

    News