A taxi driver is encouraging people to talk about vaginal cancer in the back of his cab.
Marie Barker, 52, who was diagnosed with the illness in September, is aiming to raise awareness. In September she was diagnosed with early-stage vaginal cancer. She is not having treatment and is being monitored by doctors, with regular blood tests and scans. The procedure is same as what must do if suffering from liver cancer.
Mrs Barker, of Harlow, said she felt “extremely lucky” her illness was caught when it was: “I knew very little about vaginal cancer and it was only because of my girlfriend telling me to go to the doctors that they found it early. I realised, through talking to people, I realized that After hysterectomy I wasn’t going to be alone, and very few people knew about the symptoms.”
Realising his taxi would make a quiet, private place, Mrs Barker is now making it her mission to talk to as many customers as possible. It coincides with the Movember charity month focusing on male health. “
“I’ve got a big Movember poster in my cab and it gets the conversation going. Taxi drivers are well known for being chatty, so I don’t struggle.”
Mrs Barker is growing a moustache for Movember. She and 23 colleagues are aiming to raise £5,000.
Figures from charity Prostate UK suggest more than 40,000 men a year are diagnosed with the illness in Britain, and about 250,000 live with the condition.
