Local dental hygienist takes oral health campaign to the Pyrenees

Following her epic 500 mile walk from Kirriemuir in Scotland to Brighton in June 2014 which raised £25,000 for mouth cancer awareness, local dental hygienist Christina Chatfield stages another epic adventure.

As part of the Moveit4smiles oral health initiative, she is trying to get more people directly involved in raising money in the fight against mouth cancer.

On May 20 Christine started to walk more than one million steps of the Camino de Santiago, crossing the Pyrenees, from the French town of Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Pont.

She will arrive in the Camino de Compostela on the Spanish coast, 490 miles later on June 24.

The Moveit4smiles campaign encourages dental practices and teams of Dental Care Professionals to organise their own events to raise awareness of mouth cancer and campaign towards the NHS making HPV vaccinations available to all boys on the NHS – at the moment the vaccination is only available for girls.

Organise a community walk, take part in a marathon or simply track your steps over a month at work.

Acquire your own personal pedometer to count your steps by making a £15 donation to the charity. To register your interest telephone 01273 710831.

HPV, the Human Papilloma Virus kills people every year. There is a vaccination available, but presently it is only given to girls because of links with cervical cancer.

Indications are that the vaccination will be available to be prescribed to boys in 2020. Until then a generation of our sons, brothers, grandsons and nephews will pass through to adulthood unprotected.

The HPV vaccine helps protect against mouth, vaginal, penile, annal cancer and genital warts. The cost of treating genital warts alone over the next five years is £56 million, let along the cost of treating other HPV cancers. HPV vaccinations for boys immediately not only makes financial sense, but morally and ethically it the right thing to do.