Know your ovaries

'Know your ovaries' is a campaign that aims to raise awareness of the symptoms of ovarian cancer.

More than 7,000 women are diagnosed with ovarian cancer in the UK each year, but survival rates remain stubbornly low, in part because many cases are diagnosed at an advanced stage.

Only around one third of women diagnosed have their cancer caught at stage one or two, with over 50 per cent of cancers diagnosed at advanced stages. A woman has a 95 per cent chance of survival when diagnosed early, more than double the average ovarian cancer survival rate.

Ovarian cancer van

As part of the campaign, a mobile van travelled around Lancashire and South Cumbria throughout September and October 2025, visiting town centres, supermarkets and community events. Trained volunteers were on hand to offer talks, interactive symptom checkers, Q&A sessions and signposting to support groups and healthcare providers.

If you, or anyone you know is affected by ovarian cancer, the Ovacome charity can offer support and information.

They have a free helpline open Monday to Friday, 10am - 5pm. You can call them on: 0800 008 7054.

NHS website – ovarian cancer
Ovacome: information booklets
  • 78 of 1067 survey responses indicated that women felt they had ovarian cancer symptoms now (7%)
  • 76% of these women with symptoms felt encouraged to see their GP following conversations with health ambassadors.
  • The main reasons for women not making an appointment with their GP was “difficult getting a GP appointment” or “already under GP care for their symptoms”.
  • Ovacome and Lancashire and South Cumbria Cancer Alliance had over 6000 interactions with women across the 5 week campaign.

  1. I’m too young to get ovarian cancer - women of any age can be diagnosed with ovarian cancer but it is more common over the age of 50.
  2. I’ve had my cervical screening (smear test) so I am protected against ovarian cancer - it is important to attend your cervical screening when you are invited as this helps to protect against cervical cancer, but this DOES NOT check for ovarian cancer.
  3. I’ve had a hysterectomy so I cannot get ovarian cancer - you can still develop ovarian cancer if you have had a hysterectomy, and although rare it is possible to develop ovarian cancer if you have had your ovaries removed.

  4. Ovarian cancer is not genetic - of the 952 participants we surveyed about family history, 79% did not know that having a family history of ovarian cancer increases the risk of developing it.

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