This Thursday is World Cancer Day.
“World Cancer Day takes place every year on 4 February and unites the world under a single theme to highlight the on-going fight against cancer. World Cancer Day aims to reduce the number of preventable deaths each year by raising cancer awareness amongst the general public and pressing governments to take further actions against the disease.” – Official World Cancer Day Guide by Union for International Cancer Control (UICC).
This year’s theme is ‘We Can I Can’ and it is designed to highlight the fact that we can all play a part in cancer prevention and awareness. We can do this through simple changes to our diets or activity levels; or they could be larger pieces of work aimed at challenging policies and creating environmental changes. To help us all get on board and contribute UICC have produced an array of resources, which have been made available on their World Cancer Day website. One resource is a short video highlighting how and why should get involved. Another is the social media guide. This a great guide to help support the campaign through your Twitter, Facebook and Instagram accounts; but it is also a great general guide for anyone new to social media and campaigning. Why don’t you take a look at the guide and get involved.
The Scottish Cancer Prevention Network (SCPN) will also hold their annual conference on Thursday. This is a deliberate clash which aims to show their support of the initiative and illustrate that they share the aims of World Cancer Day. The SCPN conference has a wide and varied programme and people will be tweeting throughout the day highlighting key messages and showing how they are helping the UICC and SCPN meet their aims. If you can’t make the conference why don’t you take a look at the programme and tweet some questions for the speakers via @TheSCPN, or take a look at the other areas of the SCPN website for some cooking inspiration, information about current initiatives and campaigns, and to join the network itself.
AHP Scot Blog and the National AHP Lead for Cancer Rehabilitation (@DebbieProvanRD) will be showing their support of #WeCanICan on World Cancer Day. Debbie will be tweeting from the SCPN conference and AHP Scot Blog will be showcasing the range of ideas that come from the day via a storify next week. We hope you will join us in this venture and get involved. Remember #WeCanICan.
AHPs across health and social care. 