A non-smoker who was diagnosed with lung cancer at the age of 37 is campaigning for better education for young women about the disease. Jules Fielder, now 41, secured a meeting with the Health Secretary after a social media campaign. She is contradicting "outdated stereotypes" about the disease, particularly that it only affects older people or people who smoke.<\/p>\n
Ms. Fielder was given a prognosis of six to nine months. She said: "I just thought, right, this is it, now is the final straw." She decided to use her lifeline as a tool and the power of social media to try and grant herself what she\u2019s looking for. She wanted the Health Secretary’s attention to make the point that lung cancer is the number one killer in the UK, but least in the spotlight.<\/p>\n
Ms. Fielder has a following of nearly 35,000 people on Instagram for her cancer journey blog. In a social media effort, she asked her followers to take a black and white photo with her finger to her lips and the hashtag BreakTheSilence. The response had been \u201coverwhelming\u201d, leading to an invitation from the Health Secretary.<\/p>\n
Ms. Fielder is determined to break down \u201coutdated stereotypes\u201d about the disease. She said: \u201cWe still live in such an outdated time where the stigma around lung cancer is associated with a man, a smoker.\u201d She is no longer willing to wait for another decade of non-smokers to emerge so that lung cancer can get the awareness and attention it needs. She is calling for \u201curgent action\u201d against one of Britain\u2019s biggest cancer killers.<\/p>\n
Ms. Fielder’s campaign has been successful in getting the attention of the Health Secretary. She is using her platform to raise awareness about lung cancer and to educate young women about the disease. Her message is clear: lung cancer can affect anyone, regardless of age or smoking status. She hopes that her campaign will lead to better education and awareness about the disease, and ultimately, more research and funding to find a cure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A Personal Story of Lung Cancer A non-smoker who was diagnosed with lung cancer at the age of 37 is campaigning for better education for young women about the disease. Jules Fielder, now 41, secured a meeting with the Health Secretary after a social media campaign. She is contradicting "outdated stereotypes" about the disease, particularly<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27455,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[17601,4586,443,14695,1186,3301,221,113,19104],"class_list":{"0":"post-27454","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-blog","9":"tag-hashtag","10":"tag-instagram","11":"tag-lung-cancer","12":"tag-secretary-of-state-for-health-and-social-care","13":"tag-smoking","14":"tag-social-media","15":"tag-social-stigma","16":"tag-this-is-it-staind-song"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27454"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27454\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27456,"href":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27454\/revisions\/27456"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}