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Indian actor Sayeed Jaffrey, BBC presenter Rani
Singh, former Eastenders actress Judi Shekoni
and Eddie Chan, Director of the Chinese Healthy
Living Centre are helping to launch Britain’s
first comprehensive freephone helpline service
for ethnic minorities.
With the launch of Cancer
In Your Language, CancerBACUP becomes the first British charity to offer 12 additional
national freephone helplines specifically for
speakers of the country’s most common ethnic
minority languages: Arabic, Bengali, Cantonese,
French, Greek, Gujerati, Hindi, Polish, Punjabi,
Turkish, Urdu and Vietnamese.
These 12 languages alone
cover 60-65 percent of British ethnic minority
communities. Callers to these lines get straight
through to an interpreter for their language who
will link in a CancerBACUP nurse able to answer
any question on any cancer.
The service is funded by
the New Opportunities Fund and is one of many
NOF projects around the UK beginning to address
the information and support needs of black and
ethnic minority communities. The charity is calling
on commissioners of cancer services to give firm
commitments that funding for these projects continue
beyond 2004 and that they become part of mainstream
services.
CancerBACUP is working
to extend awareness of cancer amongst Britain’s
black and ethnic minority communities. The ‘Cancer
In Your Language’ Service offers confidential
advice and information on any cancer, an awareness
of the information needs of different communities,
and emotional support.
In addition to the 12 additional
national freephone helplines, the Cancer In Your
Language service offers information and support
to people affected by cancer in more than 100
languages. People whose first language is not
English can contact the specialist cancer information
nurses on Freephone 0808 800 1234, who will then
link in a relevant interpreter.
Joanne Rule, Chief Executive
of CancerBACUP, said:
“We know that in the
UK today there are more than a million people,
particularly among older generations, who speak
very little English or none at all. Others may
simply prefer to receive information and support
in a language other than English. We believe this
service is a major step forward. We are committed
to continuing this NOF funded service beyond 2004,
but other projects may not survive. That’s
why we’re calling for commissioners of cancer
services to ensure that these vital services become
part of mainstream NHS activity.”
Isaac Dweben, Chief Executive
and Founder of Cancer Black Care, said:
"This is an incredibly
exciting development in the provision of vital
cancer information for the UK's black and ethnic
communities. Some of the workers in our drop in
centres do speak other languages, but we couldn't
possibly cover the number being offered by CancerBACUP's
Cancer In Your Language service. We will be recommending
the service - not only because of the valuable
language barriers it will help overcome - but
also because of the the charity's commitment to
providing information relevant to the wide range
of religions and cultures living in Britain today.”
The new service is being
provided in partnership with the interpreting
and translation company EITI, which already works
with hospitals, primary care trusts and health
authorities across the UK.
Carolyn Burgess, Managing
Director of EITI, said:
“We are determined
to help CancerBACUP provide high quality and up-to-date
information to as many people as possible.”
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