Next Doncaster stop revealed for life saving mobile cancer scanner

The Doncaster Lung Health Check Programme was launched in Rossington in March in a bid to pick up on lung conditions including cancer, in areas which have a history of serious lung disease.

Now health officials are looking to move it to another location in the near future, with the next stop due to be in the Mexborough and Conisbrough area.

Officials expect it to be based at the Dearne Valley Leisure Centre, between Mexborough and Conisbrough, on Doncaster Road in Denaby Main.

Since it was launched, the scheme has run checks on around 700 people in the south of Doncaster, with around half of them being given a scan using the mobile scanner in the car park at Rossington Miners Welfare.

Dr David Crichton, chairman of Doncaster NHS Clinical Commissioning Group, said Doncaster had traditionally had high lung cancer rates, partially due to its industrial background in the mining and rail engineering sectors.

But he said an additional problem recently had been that some of the symptoms of lung cancer, such as the cough, overlapped with the coronavirus.

"We think some people have been reluctant to come forward, because they thought it was just Covid,” he said. “We are looking at campaigns to differentiate the two."

He said the date for the lung health programme to move to the Dearne had not yet been confirmed, but after it moves there, it was likely to be in the Mexborough and Conisbrough area until the middle of June. It started in the South of Doncaster because that was where it was thought to be most needed.

Dr Crichton said cancer treatment had been protected during the pandemic, but it was believed patients had not come forward during that period. He said last year had seen around 400 fewer cancer treatments than the annual average in South Yorkshire.

Now many of those patients are coming forward with symptoms though, he added, which meant there were now more referrals than there had been previously, potentially causing a backlog.#

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