Women with ovarian cancer are being overlooked says new report
Charity Target Ovarian Cancer published the report which shows that a third of women wait more than 3 months for a diagnosis of the disease.
The UK’s leading ovarian charity has published a new report which says that women are being “overlooked and failed” when it comes to treatment of ovarian cancer.
Target Ovarian Cancer published their Pathfinder report which looks into the state of treatment of the disease across the nation.
It reveals that if diagnosis was quicker, access to treatment fairer and more support was available then more women would survive ovarian cancer - and that progress is possible if action is taken quickly.
But currently it found that a third of women wait over three months for a diagnosis.
For one of the organisers of a Surrey support group for those with ovarian cancer, Dyana Rush this didn’t come as a huge surprise.
She said “services appear to be quite overwhelmed, right away from the beginning through, and very very busy”.
The report also found that more than half of the people diagnosed with ovarian cancer did not have questions asked about the impact treatment was having on their mental health.
Diana felt that this had become worse since the pandemic.
“I suspect it’s a lot worse since covid, and definitely the feedback we get from people is that they are quite isolated, and the report I think backs that up.”
When asked about why she thought this might be she said that she believes this is due to the private nature of ovarian cancer.
“There is a taboo in mentioning these quite private things really.”
You can read the report from Target Ovarian Cancer here:
https://targetovariancancer.org.uk/get-involved/campaign/policy/pathfinder