Mana Wahine - how cervical screening can save lives

Kaimahi at Rangitane Square fundraising for Daffodil Day. From left: Josh Eruera, Kathy Mihaere, Riana Hapuku-Smyth, Kati Ahipene, Emaraina Eruera and Sarah Wells.

Whakarongo ki ngā wai rere o te awa pokere of Tamakuku e tangi atu nei.

“E kore e ngaro te kakano i ruia mai i Rangiātea – He wahine he whenua ka ora ai te tangata”

Tihei mauri ora!

Our article last week outlined the cancer support services provided by Te Kete Hauora o Rangitāne with a focus on He Mate Pukupuku – Cancer Support.

This week’s focus is our Mana Wāhine – Cervical Screening Support Service. This service supports key priority group women to access and participate in screening activities relating to cervical cancer across the Midcentral area. This includes cervical smears, swabs and attendance at colposcopy clinic. Our priority groups are women who identify as Māori or Pasifika, and women of any ethnicity who have never engaged in screening activities or have not been screened in more than five years.

Kaimahi Keshaan Te Waaka works in this service and is passionate about the health outcomes of all women living in Tamaki nui-ā-Rua. Keshaan especially wants to protect local whakapapa by ensuring Māori women access these life-changing screening services.

Kaimahi Katarina Cooper based in the Horowhenua also wants to empower wāhine to take control of their own health and participate in screening services.

“Too often we put the needs of others before our own. We need to celebrate ourselves and encourage everyone in the whānau to get screened, from kuia down to our mokopuna”.

A highlight for Katarina earlier this year was supporting the Smear Your Mea campaign as the Ride4Talei rōpū biked through the Horowhenua. Talei Morrison became a champion of women’s health after being diagnosed with cervical cancer in 2017, aged 41. Sadly Talei died in 2018 but not before she and her whānau set up Smear Your Mea to raise awareness, educate, advocate and empower wāhine Māori and their whānau on the importance of cervical cancer screening. Talei’s legacy continues today with National Smear Your Mea Day celebrated on August 30 each year.

Cervical screening saves lives. Routine cervical screening can prevent cancer or find cancer earlier making it easier to treat. Overall death rates have decreased by nearly two-thirds since the cervical screening programmes began.

DID YOU KNOW:

160 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer each year. Fifty of these women will die.

Cervical cancer diagnoses are more than two times higher in Māori populations vs non-Māori.

Cancer deaths are 2.5 times higher in Māori vs non-Māori

The number of people affected by cancer is expected to increase by 46 per cent by 2040 due to our ageing population

To access or find out more about our cancer services; Mana Wāhine – Cervical Screening Support and He Mate Pukupuku – Cancer support, contact Te Kete Hauora o Rangitāne on 06 374 6860 or info@rangitane.co.nz, or call into our office, 10 Gordon St, Dannevirke.

Hutia te rito o te harakeke kei hea te Kōmako e ko?

Kī mai ki ahau he aha te mea nui o te ao?

Māku i kī atu. “He tangata! He tangata! He tangata!”