Breast Cancer Awareness For First Time Screeners

To support a regional project focused on understanding the barriers that prevent women from attending their first breast screening appointment, and to gather meaningful insight that could shape future improvements.

Why This Matters

Early breast screening significantly improves outcomes, but first‑time attendance remains a challenge for many women. Understanding the real‑world barriers, practical, emotional, cultural, or informational, is essential for designing services that are accessible, inclusive, and supportive. This insight helps drive both regional and potentially national improvements in early diagnosis pathways.

What we did

We worked collaboratively with community partners to gather high‑quality insight across different settings. All insight was captured in a way that supports robust behavioural analysis.

We delivered structured and informal interviews and supported the distribution and collection of surveys.

We helped organise a dedicated focus group with a corporate partner, Parkdean Resorts, and attended on the day to facilitate and support discussions.

We ensured a safe, open environment for women to share their honest experiences, concerns, and barriers around first‑time screening.

Outcomes

What we achieved!

The data collected is now being analysed by Caja, the behavioural science team, to identify key themes and drivers affecting first‑time attendance. The findings will inform regional improvement plans and may also contribute to national recommendations aimed at increasing breast screening uptake. This project has strengthened partnership working and demonstrated the importance of hearing directly from women to shape more effective, empathetic screening pathways.