The Smear Your Mea team are campaigning for all women to have regular cervical smears: Janice Wall (left), Sharon Fletcher, Carol Mitchell, Hine Loughlin and Kelly Reuben. Photo / L McMichael
The Smear Your Mea team are campaigning for all women to have regular cervical smears: Janice Wall (left), Sharon Fletcher, Carol Mitchell, Hine Loughlin and Kelly Reuben. Photo / L McMichael
Protect your whakapapa. Safeguard your health. Smear Your Mea.
The campaign to have all women, particularly wāhine Māori keep up with their cervical smears has returned to the Tūwharetoa rohe, and this time the Smear Your Mea team want to reach even more women than before.
Kaiwhakahaere (co-ordinator) Janice Wall, kaimahi Sharon Fletcher of Tūwharetoa Health and kuia Carol Mitchell are running the second Smear Your Mea campaign, setting up weekend clinics at health centres and marae in Taupō and Tūrangi where nurse practitioner Hine Loughlin and other nurses will provide free cervical smears in a relaxed, friendly environment. All the members of the team are volunteering their time.
Smear Your Mea was set up by the late Talei Morrison in 2017 to raise awareness and early detection, treatment and prevention of cervical cancer.
Last Sunday's 2020 National Smear Your Mea Day marked three years since she was diagnosed with stage four cervical cancer.
Talei spent the final months of her life bravely campaigning for other women, especially wāhine Māori, to make sure they had regular cervical smears to catch the early signs of cancer.
The first Smear Your Mea campaign in the Tūwharetoa rohe last year offered the smears in a comfortable, culturally appropriate environment where wāhine could come along, enjoy some kai and a cup of tea while waiting and have their tamariki babysat while they were with the nurse.
Smear Your Mea sessions were held at Pakira Marae, Waitahanui, Hirangi Marae, Tūrangi, and Te Rangiita Marae, Nukuhau.
The late Talei Morrison (right) and Nikki Douglas promoting the Smear Your Mea campaign. Photo / File
Nurse practitioner Hine Loughlin says Smear Your Mea was especially successful at reaching women who had missed their smears.
"Our stats from last year were that 50 per cent [of women who attended] were overdue, 30 per cent were due and 20 per cent had never had a smear or were over 10 years overdue. Most of those ones were over the age of 35 having their first smear."
The second Smear Your Mea session in the 2020 campaign was held last Sunday morning at Pinnacle Health in Tūwharetoa St, Taupō, with Hine and fellow nurse practitioner Kelly Reuben providing the smears.
The first was at Waitahanui Community Hall before lockdown, with the second session at Hirangi Marae having to be cancelled. Last weekend's session was originally meant to be held at Te Rangiita Marae but was moved due to Covid-19 restrictions.
Janice says regardless of the venue, the women are running the sessions on behalf of their marae and their whānau.
Their team has the highest smear statistics for iwi around New Zealand, something they are very proud of.
"Other iwi push it through their health organisations but we push it out through whānau, marae, iwi, hapū- we've got good comms," Janice says.
"The grapevine korero is important to us and we have had support from Tūrangi Community Health Trust and Pinnacle Health."
The team particularly encourage women aged over 35 to make the effort to come along.
"Women my age and up they get a bit shy, they've had their kids so they don't think they have to go out and get smeared but initiatives like this encourage our wāhine to come back out," Janice says.
The team is grateful for the support of Te Pae o Waimihia and Tauhara Geothermal Charitable Trust which has once again enabled the team to give away free Smear Your Mea hoodies.
"I love seeing my aunties and cousins have them on because they wear it with pride."
Janice says one of the team's keys to success is that all of them stand in influential places, whether within Ngāti Tūwharetoa, in marae or Tūwharetoa Health or Taupō Medical Centre. She says Hine's strong involvement in the health sector and the iwi is particularly highly valued.
Marlene Rawhiti was one of the women who turned up in the first hour to have her smear and claim her hoodie. She says one of the things that can deter women can be a bad past experience but praised Hine's technique and says she made her feel relaxed and comfortable.
Carol says the team want to encourage all wāhine to come along because even if they are whakama (shy) about having a smear, it can save their life. One woman she knows refuses to let anybody but Hine do her smear.
The Smear Your Mea team at Pakira Marae in 2019. Carol Mitchell (front left), Sharon Fletcher, Shayna Rameka; Hine Loughlin (back) with grandson Frankie Turner, Janice Wall. Photo / File
While some Smear Your Mea clinics are held at marae, all wāhine are welcome at any of them.
"Any wahine that wants to come to get their mea smeared, whether Indian, Pākehā, Māori, we are totally open to that," Janice says. "We are doing this to protect our whakapapa."
Hine says primary health services need to change, not just to reach Māori but to also connect with disadvantaged whanau, who are less likely to pick up scripts and less likely to engage with health services. That means cervical abnormalities are picked up later and are harder to treat.
"If it's picked up early it's easily treated, same with breast cancer. So we are doing a small community service that changes the way we do things.
As one of the ladies said, 'I knew I needed to do it but it was getting the time'. This is a place to feel comfortable and happy."
¦The next Smear Your Mea will be held at Awhi House, Paekiri St, Tūrangi on September 19 with support of the Tūrangi Community Health Centre. Future sessions will be scheduled as the team is available and sessions are planned at Te Rangiita Marae, Waipāhīhī and Hirangi. Keep an eye on Facebook at the Waitahanui Community Noticeboard page.
