'Boob-les' Christmas tree promotes cancer screening

A Christmas tree has been decorated with knitted "boob-les" to promote breast cancer screening.

It is part of the Lord Mayor's Christmas Tree Festival in Hull Minster.

The tree by the Humberside Breast Screening Team hopes to show the importance of attending screening appointments, the NHS Humber Health Partnership said.

The partnership said that in some local GPs only 6% of woman aged between 50 and 53 attend appointments.

Health Promotion Officer Sue Whittle said she hoped the tree was a "fun way to help family and friends encourage anyone eligible for breast screening to attend their appointments".

"Around 1,300 lives are saved every year by attending breast screening appointments," she said.

"Picking up problems at an early stage can mean the difference between life and death."

"Those who don't come along for their screening appointments have less chance of survival if they go on to develop breast cancer because we haven't been able to catch it early enough."

Screening is carried out by a team of female radiographers on women every three years from the age of 50 and only take a few minutes to perform, the NHS partnership said.

A fleet of mobile units in vans carry out the scans in shopping centres, supermarkets and at doctors' practices.

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