October 14, 2015
Illawarra’s ‘Cancer Good News’ campaign wins Australian Multicultural Marketing Award
Project that encourages Macedonian and Serbian communities to be screened for cancer wins national award.
While the words ‘cancer’ and ‘good news’ would not normally be used together, the innovative nature of the ‘Cancer Good News’ social marketing campaign has been acknowledged with the award in the Public Sector Category of the Australian Multicultural Marketing Awards, presented at the Sydney Opera House this week.
The campaign, created by Dr Lyn Phillipson, from UOW’s Centre for Health Initiatives, and the Illawarra Shoalhaven Local Health District Multicultural Health Service, was designed to increase awareness amongst the Illawarra’s Macedonian and Serbian communities that a cancer diagnosis is not always a death sentence, with many recent improvements in treatment and survival rates.
“Research that we conducted with the local Serbian and Macedonian communities in the Illawarra revealed that cancer was greatly feared and strongly associated with stigma and death,” Dr Phillipson said.
“Stigma can present a real barrier to people coming forward for cancer screening and treatment, so it is important to share some good news about cancer – about improved treatment and survival rates and encourage community members to undertake cancer screening.”
Dr Phillipson said the campaign included a multilingual website, providing information and resources about both breast and bowel cancers – including good news facts, tests and stories of cancer survival and screening from within the community to promote positive discussion and screening.
The campaign also included community newsletters and radio scripts which have been aired on radio stations in Macedonian and Serbian languages over the past two years.
The campaign also included face-to-face interactive education sessions, which provided an opportunity for active discussion between community members and cancer experts to address cancer stigma and misconceptions.
"Improving timely cancer screening and outcomes for people diagnosed with cancer from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds is a key priority in the Illawarra Shoalhaven,” Leissa Pitts, Manager of the Illawarra Shoalhaven Local Health District Multicultural Health service, said.
“We know that early detection and treatment can improve survival rates significantly for a large number of cancers. However, we also know that there are many cultural barriers, which prevent people from participating in screening programs or presenting to their doctor with symptoms.
“The project provides a model for others to follow which can effectively address these barriers within CALD communities in an engaging and culturally appropriate way.”
The Cancer Good News Project was a partnership between UOW’s Centre for Health Initiatives, The Illawarra Shoalhaven Local Health District (Multicultural Health and Cancer Services) the Cancer Council NSW (Southern Region) and the Serbian and Macedonian communities of the Illawarra. The project was funded by a grant from the Cancer Institute NSW.