Poland's participation in the European Cervical Cancer Prevention Week.
The Polish national social campaign entitled "Beautiful because healthy" organized as part of the European Cervical Cancer Prevention Week under the honorary patronage of Anna Komorowska, the wife of the President of the Republic of Poland, and Hanna Gronkiewicz – Waltz, President of the capital city of Warsaw, will be launched on 22 January 2012. The second edition of the campaign is supported by LaciBios femina – an oral gynaecological probiotic dedicated to women's intimate health.
The objective of the campaign conducted by the "Flower of Womanhood" foundation - the Polish National Association Against Cervical Cancer - is to raise women's awareness and to educate them in the prevention and treatment of a disease with the highest in Europe mortality rate among women in Poland and the appallingly low detectability effectiveness in an early and still curable stage. Its aim is to make women of all ages aware of the fact that it is sufficient to have regular cytological examinations in order to protect themselves and their closest relatives from the worst scenario.
The campaign is promoted by all the people connected with it, including as many as 11 Polish celebrities - actresses, journalists and TV presenters, such as Anna Dereszowska, Edyta Jungowska, Katarzyna Pakosińska, Katarzyna Zielińska, Katarzyna Glinka, Agnieszka Popielewicz, Anna Wendzikowska, Ewa Pacuła, Maja Hirsch, Aleksandra Mikołajczyk and Marzena Sienkiewicz. The project is also supported by Agata Młynarska – the face of the advertisement campaign of LaciBios femina.
The campaign entitled "Beautiful because healthy" is also to attract people's attention to the necessity of preventing not only cervical cancer but also other types of female reproductive organs cancer, including ovarian cancer, whose mortality rate is equally disturbing, too. The campaign entitled "Beautiful because healthy" does not aim at frightening people and shocking them with tragedies but at educating them that it is not worth being scared of examinations which can save their lives.
Cervical cancer is not a hereditary disease - it is the result of an infection with HPV (Human Papilloma Virus), transmitted sexually, which is commonly prevented by a vaccine in many Western countries. Cervical cancer can be detected in a relatively early stage by having regular cytological examinations. Unfortunately, according to data provided by the Provincial Centre for Coordination of Population-wide Programmes of Early Detection of Breast Cancer as well as Prevention and Early Detection of Cervical Cancer at the ONCOLOGY CENTRE - the Maria Skłodowska – Curie Institute, in Poland only 30% of women have systematic cytological examinations which should be carried out once a year, and at least once every three years. What is even worse, half of the women suffering from this cancer never had a Pap smear screening.
This is the second edition of the campaign entitled "Beautiful because healthy" organized as part of Poland's participation in the European Cervical Cancer Prevention Week - a Pan-European initiative of ECCA - the European Cervical Cancer Association. It is organized in cooperation with scholarly associations, non-governmental organizations and all entities involved in the prevention of the disease. Its aim is to raise social awareness of cervical cancer and of the possibilities of protection against the disease. ECCA is also an honorary patron of Poland's participation in the European Cervical Cancer Prevention Week and the "Beautiful because healthy" campaign.