A non-smoker who was diagnosed with lung cancer at the age of 37 is campaigning for better awareness of the condition in young women.<\/p>\n
Jules Fielder, from Hastings, East Sussex, has secured a meeting with Health Secretary Wes Streeting after a social media campaign.<\/p>\n
Ms Fielding, now 41, said she was challenging \u00ab\u00a0outdated stereotypes\u00a0\u00bb about the condition, particularly that it only affects older people or people who smoke.<\/p>\n
She is demanding \u00ab\u00a0urgent action\u00a0\u00bb about one of the UK’s biggest cancer killers.<\/p>\n
Ms Fielder said she was given a prognosis of six to nine months in August.<\/p>\n
She said: \u00ab\u00a0I just thought, right, this is it, now is the final straw for me.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0I’m just going to use my lifeline as a tool and use the power of social media to try to grant me what I’m after.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0And that is why I wanted Wes Streeting’s attention – to express how lung cancer is UK’s number one killer but has the least amount of limelight on it.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n
Ms Fielder has a following of almost 35,000 people for her cancer journey blog on Instagram.<\/p>\n
Taking to social media in a coordinated movement with Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation, she asked followers to take a black and white photo holding their finger to their lips with the hashtag BreakTheSilence.<\/p>\n
Ms Fielding said the response was \u00ab\u00a0overwhelming\u00a0\u00bb which led to an invite from the Health Secretary.<\/p>\n
She said she was determined to break down \u00ab\u00a0outdated stereotypes\u00a0\u00bb about the disease.<\/p>\n
She said: \u00ab\u00a0We still live in such a dated time where the stigma around lung cancer is associated to a man, a smoker.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0I’m not prepared to sit anymore and wait for another decade of non-smokers to appear in order for lung cancer to have the awareness and the attention that it needs.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n
Follow BBC Sussex on Facebook, on X, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk or WhatsApp us on 08081 002250.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A non-smoker who was diagnosed with lung cancer at the age of 37 is campaigning for better awareness of the condition in young women. Jules Fielder, from Hastings, East Sussex, has secured a meeting with Health Secretary Wes Streeting after a social media campaign. Ms Fielding, now 41, said she was challenging \u00ab\u00a0outdated stereotypes\u00a0\u00bb about […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-9473","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9473"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9473\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}