'I'm running 17 Parkruns for cervical screening'

A woman is running all 17 Parkrun events in Suffolk to help raise awareness of cervical screenings.

Cara Lawrence, 28, is a cervical screening administrator at the Suffolk GP Federation and works to encourage people to attend their appointments.

She is giving talks at each Parkrun and hopes her challenge will encourage at least 17 people to book a test.

"I thought [Parkruns were] a good way to get around and even though it may not directly [affect] everyone at the Parkrun, everyone there will have a mum, a sister, an auntie, a daughter - just to spread awareness," she said.

Mrs Lawrence is working as part of The Very Important Invitation Project campaign.

She said one in three people who were invited to screenings, did not attend.

NHS data from last year showed that about 4.6 million people aged 25 to 64 in England had never been screened for cervical cancer or not taken up their latest invitation to book their appointment.

The screening helps prevent 70% of cervical cancer deaths and if everyone attended, 83% could be prevented, according to NHS England.

Mrs Lawrence ran her first Parkrun of the series at Kesgrave near Ipswich on Saturday - which is believed to have one of parkrun UK's largest female attendances.

She said she gave a talk on cervical screening to about 250 people there, and was joined at her pop-up stand by a nurse from her team.

"We had lots of questions from a variety of people, both men and women, so it was a good response for the first one," said Mrs Lawrence, who said her team had two extra emails referencing her appearance at Kesgrave.

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