THE Bath and North East Somerset Faith Foundation has teamed up with MacMillan during the month of July to raise awareness of cancer amongst ethnic minority communities.

July is annually recognised across the UK as Ethnic Minority Cancer Awareness Month. The aim is to highlight and raise awareness of cancer, screening and what services are available for ethnic minority communities.

Many different factors can cause cancer, such as family history, diet and lifestyle. Research appears to show that cancer awareness and use of cancer support services tend to be lower in ethnic minority communities.

Nathan Hartley, director of the Bath and North East Somerset Faith Foundation, said: “An individual’s ethnicity can indicate if someone has a lower or higher risk factor of developing certain cancers.

“In general, Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) groups have a lower risk of developing cancer than people from a White/Caucasian background.

“For instance, in England, white women have a 60 to 80 per cent higher risk of getting lung cancer than Black and Asian women.

“But there are some exceptions - such as mouth cancer being more predominate in the South Asian communities, and Black men are twice as likely to develop prostate cancer than White men in the UK.”

“The stigma of having cancer and a language barrier can often prevent people seeking advice from a medical practitioner, and thus obtaining an early diagnosis.

“We are supporting Macmillan in the need to raise awareness and support people from ethnic groups to check possible signs and symptoms, to seek help from GPs and to uptake cancer support services.”

Changes in lifestyle can help prevent people being diagnosed with cancer, including decreasing smoking and alcohol intake, eating a nutritious balanced diet, being a healthy weight, exercising regularly, being careful in the sun, understanding the body and looking out for any unusual changes and attending screening check-ups.