NHS cancer bus tour due at Barnsley market

The NHS Bus-ting Cancer Tour comes to Barnsley on Wednesday

A special bus tour designed to raise awareness of cancer is due in Barnsley later.

Organised by NHS England the bus is visiting areas with some of the lowest early cancer diagnosis rates.

NHS staff and Cancer Research UK nurses will be on the bus and they are able to give people information about the common signs and symptoms of cancer.

Health Secretary Steve Barclay said early diagnosis was the "best way to improve patient outcomes".

The NHS Bus-ting Cancer tour is due to be at Barnsley Market from 10:00 GMT until 16:00 after visiting Blackburn and Sunderland.

It will move on to Leicester and London later in the week.

Professor Peter Johnson, national clinical director for cancer, said it was important to work "to diagnose more cancers at an earlier stage than ever before".

"Trained staff will be on hand to discuss any concerns people may have about cancer symptoms and to inform them on what to look out for," he added.

Volunteers from the bus will hand out information to passers by

The slogan "65 out of 78 passengers on this bus would survive cancer if caught at the earliest stage" appears on the side of the bus, which has been provided by Stagecoach.

The figure is based on five-year survival statistics for stage 1 cancers.

Michelle Mitchell, Cancer Research UK's chief executive said awareness campaigns were "important to help ensure more cancers are diagnosed at their earliest stage, when people are more likely to survive their disease".

More than 2.8 million people were seen for NHS cancer checks last year, which was up from 2.35 million in the same period before the pandemic in 2018/2019.

Health Secretary Steve Barclay said: "More people are surviving cancer than ever before, but we are keen to catch more cancers early as that is the best way to improve patient outcomes."