Home testing kits needed for cervical cancer check

Women should be given home-testing kits for the virus that causes 99 per cent of cervical cancer, a charity has said.

Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust said the NHS should introduce home testing as soon as possible for the human papillomavirus (HPV) in a bid to diagnose more women with the disease at an earlier stage.

The charity made the call on the tenth anniversary of the death of reality TV star Jade Goody, who died from cervical cancer aged just 27 in March 2009.

In the months after Goody died, about half a million extra women attended smear tests – known as the “Jade Goody effect”.

But since then, screening rates have been falling and the latest data shows that, as of the end of March last year, the percentage of eligible women screened adequately was just 71 per cent.

Among younger women screening rates were even worse, with just 61 per cent of those aged 25 to 29 screened and 69 per cent of those aged 30 to 34.

Robert Music, chief executive of Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust, said self testing could help reverse some of the decline by allowing women to use the kits in the comfort of their own home.