Research on access to cancer services on Yorkshire Coast
People affected by cancer are being asked to take part in a study.
People who are affected by cancer on the Yorkshire Coast are being asked to take part in a research study.
Hull York Medical School is wanting to learn about accessibility to cancer services and support - as well as how any inequalities can be addressed.
It has been funded by Yorkshire Cancer Research.
Rebecca Price, a first year PHD student, is conducting the study and said:
"We really wanted to look at the differences between coastal and urban communities in terms of cancer outcomes and experiences first hand. Chris Whitty England's Chief Medical Officer released an annual report which says coastal communities are quite a sparse area in terms of data and there's quite a lot of health inequalities present.
"I think it's a perfect time to do it as around 17 percent of people living in coastal communities so it's such a large amount of people but there's so little data on health in that area. We know that the health outcomes are generally worse but specifics in terms of cancer we don't know much about.
"In terms of transport and things in this area, Hornsea, Flamborough and Withernsea don't have access to a trainline so actually accessing the appointments, which might seem like a small point, is actually quite a big issue for some people.
"Chris Whitty's recent report said that a lot of the population in these areas tend to be older as people move there for retirement, and that's the reason why they get illnesses that are linked to age, but to be honest the actual reasons specifically, there's so many different ones but it does really need a lot more data to pinpoint it".
If you would like to help Rebecca, get in touch with her by emailing hyrp26@hyms.ac.uk
You can read Chris Whitty's recent report here and find out more about Rebecca and her study here.