A woman has set herself the challenge of running every parkrun in Suffolk to encourage women to attend their cervical screening.

Cara Lawrence, from Needham Market, works as an admin assistant for The Very Important Invitation Project in Felixstowe a joint initiative between Suffolk GP+, Public Health Bodies and local charities promoting accessible cervical screening.

Data released last year showed that 4.6 million people aged 25 to 64 in England have either never been screened for cervical cancer or haven't taken up their latest invitation to book an appointment.

This is a real concern as through regular screening 99.8% of cervical cancer in the UK is preventable.

Cara at a pop-up stand at Kesgrave last Saturday. Cara at a pop-up stand at Kesgrave last Saturday. 

A list of the park runs that Cara is going to complete across the county.A list of the park runs that Cara is going to complete across the county. (Image: Cara Lawrence) Cara is using the parkruns between now and March as an opportunity to briefly talk about the importance of cervical screening before each race.

Altogether she will take on 14 runs, and also have a pop-up stand at some of the parkruns to provide a safe space for anyone to answer questions.

The Very Important Invitation Project organises regular outreach events at schools and universities as well as Latitude Festival and the Suffolk Show. 

The project focuses on reducing fears about attending cervical screening while also emphasising the importance of attending.

Last Saturday she kickstarted her challenge at Kesgrave as according to her research it has one of the highest numbers of female parkrun participants in the county.



Cara said that it was nerve-wracking giving a talk before the Kesgrave Park Run last Saturday and that she had to find an inclusive way of engaging male runners who may not think the subject was relevant to them.

She said: "I kind of emphasised before I spoke that it's not irrelevant to the males there, they all have a mum, daughter or someone they can have an open discussion with about it.

"I just liked the way the parkruns were mapped through Suffolk so I can reach every audience in the county."