Don’t Fear The Smear

WHEN it was time for your last smear test, did you put it off?
If so, you’re not alone.
Every year thousands of women across Scotland fail to attend for screening: some are just too busy, others put it off, and many are too scared to go.
In fact, numbers attending smears in Dumfries and Galloway have fallen over the last few years, so to mark Cervical Cancer Screening Week (June 10-16), we are launching a new campaign — Don’t Fear The Smear — to try and encourage more women to get checked out.
With 61 cases of cervical cancer diagnosed in this region in 2018-19, it’s a test no-one should be missing, writes editor Fiona Reid.
We hope that the personal stories you read today and the articles over the coming months will prove just how important it is that you too ‘get smeared’.