Help Protect Women's Health – Say No to Extending Cervical Screening Intervals

The NHS Cervical Screening Programme currently offers smear tests every 3 years for women aged 25 to 49. This vital screening helps detect early changes in cervical cells, preventing thousands of cervical cancer cases each year.

However, from 1st July 2025, this interval could be extended to every 5 years for many women in this age group, based on changes in HPV testing protocols.

While I’m not a medical professional, I speak from deeply personal experience—both from my own health journey and from the heartbreaking loss of someone I loved to cervical cancer.

Early detection saves lives. Increasing the gap between screenings risks missing early signs of disease—and in my view, it could cost lives.

Here are the facts:

• Over 3,200 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer each year in the UK.
• Around 850 women die from this disease annually in the UK—that’s more than two lives lost every single day.
• Globally, a woman dies from cervical cancer every two minutes.

We run awareness campaigns urging women to attend their smear tests—because we know how important they are. So how can we now be told that waiting longer is safe?

Having seen the devastating consequences of this cancer when it’s not caught in time, I feel a deep responsibility to speak out—for those who can’t.

Please join me in urging NHS England and Public Health to keep cervical screening every 3 years for women over 25. We cannot afford to take a step backwards in women’s healthcare.

🖊️ Sign the petition to protect women’s health and maintain 3-year cervical screening intervals.