About our project
We were delighted to receive funding from Yorkshire Cancer research for the ‘Wise up to Cancer’ project.
This was to work with women from a South Asian background who lived in Bradford and encourage them to take up their cancer screening. A total of 3300 women took part in this project which was brilliant but one of the South Asian women who was advising on the project suggested that to increase this number we need to do another project which includes working with families to encourage women from a South Asian background to have their cancer screening. ‘Muslim families screening for life’ project aimed to do this.
This 3 year project ended in July 2025. It was funded by Yorkshire Cancer Research (thank you) and our research team came from very different backgrounds to make sure we did this right.
The research Team
Our team included Faith in Communities, Sharing Voices, Pennine Breast Imaging, West Yorkshire and Harrogate Cancer Alliance, Bradford Institute for Health Research, British Islamic Medical Association.
We also had a diverse research advisory group which included Muslim men and women who met regularly to keep us on track as we progressed through the project.
What we did
We delivered an intervention that was co-designed with the local South Asian Muslim community, delivered to men in places where they met. We reached 1072 men at 58 different workshops held in Mosques and Madrassas, sports venues, social groups, colleges and the University of Bradford. We asked the men to sign up for the project then to go home and have conversations with 6 women in their families. From this, we hoped that women who were overdue their cancer screening would take it up.
For more information
Please contact Dr Melanie Cooper by email M.Cooper2@bradford.ac.uk or by phone 07827 981927