SPORTSWOMEN including Olympic medallist Katherine Grainger and Judy Murray are urging women to be more aware of lung cancer after a rise in cases.
Rates of the disease among women have risen by 28% in the past 25 years in Scotland while they have dropped by 41% among men, according to figures from Information Services Division Scotland.
A team of celebrities who rely on their lungs for their profession are campaigning to raise awareness about lung cancer. They are urging people to be more conscious of changes to their breathing, cough and chest, and to visit their GP as soon as they can with any concerns.
Dr Grainger said: "A couple of years ago, the mother of a very good friend of mine was diagnosed with lung cancer and sadly passed away. It was understandably a very difficult time for the whole family. We all wish more could have been done earlier but the diagnosis came too late.
"The good news is that people do survive lung cancer and there have been huge advances in treatment that can help to extend or improve quality of life."
Mrs Murray also urged people to go to the doctor if they have any concerns about their lungs. She said: "While it's scary to hear that lung cancer is Scotland's most common cancer, the disease is no longer a death sentence. When it's detected at an early stage, lung cancer can be treated.
"If you have any worries about your lungs, breathing or chest, please see your GP at the earliest opportunity."
Other celebrities backing the campaign include former X Factor and The Voice coach Yvie Burnett, racing driver Susie Wolff, television presenter Jenni Falconer, Olympic athlete Eilidh Child, Deacon Blue singer Lorraine McIntosh, and singer-songwriters Eddi Reader and Nina Nesbitt.
Health Secretary Alex Neil said: "I am delighted that these inspirational women are backing our Detect Cancer Early programme and asking more women to make what could be a life-saving appointment with their doctor."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article