The NOMAN is an Island: Race to End HPV Campaign is joining forces with Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust to launch and co-chair a new HPV Coalition.
The HPV Coalition, established in 2022, is an expert advisory group of leading patient groups, professional groups, clinicians, and expert individuals who have come together to inform and advance the UK’s journey towards elimination of HPV-related cancers – cancers which account for 5% of all cancers globally, and which we now, for the first time in history, have the opportunity to eliminate as a public health threat.
Despite the scale of the opportunity, the UK has yet to take the step of other countries, such as Australia and Canada, in developing an action plan for cervical cancer elimination. The UK also lags behind the European Union which, through the Beating Cancer Plan, has gone one step further, in committing to eliminate all HPV cancers. The HPV Coalition is therefore eager to see the UK put in place a concrete plan for elimination as a matter of priority, targeted at the whole range of HPV-related cancers and supporting access to preventative interventions for all parts of the population.
The Coalition will stand at the forefront of UK policymaking and will bring together a membership of patient organisations, professional groups, clinicians, and expert individuals to build and demonstrate broad stakeholder consensus around the significant – and as yet unharnessed – opportunity to pursue eliminationin the UK. The membership will advocate for commitment and action from all UK governments to pursue elimination of the whole range of HPV-related cancers, in both men and women. As a first step on this journey, the HPV Coalition will develop a UK elimination roadmap, clearly setting out the steps required to achieve elimination of HPV-related cancers, including the areas where further research is required.
On October 24th 2022, the Coalition was officially launched in the Palace of Westminster in an event hosted by long standing HPV advocate, Jess Phillips MP.
The HPV Coalition is proud to publish the next step in that journey, our Roadmap towards making the elimination of all HPV-related cancers a reality across the UK, which you can read below. The Roadmap serves as our call to Governments across the four nations of the UK to take action, while providing the blueprint of how elimination can be delivered.
Our goal is simple Make the elimination of all HPV-related cancers a reality across the UK. We have many of the tools available to us now to make this a reality, and we must ensure it is grasped without delay.
To achieve this, we must ensure foundations of HPV prevention are strengthened across the UK. Our Roadmap is therefore made up of a number of building blocks – with associated actions – that plot our course to elimination:
1. National and regional leadership and accountability
2. Improving education on HPV to tackle stigma and drive access to prevention
3. Making sure everyone has equitable access to screening and early diagnosis
4. Restoring and boosting immunisation uptake, including catch-up programmes
5. Enhancing the data, digital and workforce infrastructure
6. Embracing future innovations
It is critical that UK governments set out a concrete strategy for the elimination of all HPV-related cancers, widening the scope of our ambition beyond cervical cancer elimination. Along with our fellow members of the HPV Coalition, we stand ready to support the implementation of recommendations and take meaningful steps to prevent HPV-related cancers from affecting the lives of so many women and men.
We recognise that concerted and collaborative action is essential to success, and therefore the HPV Coalition is committed to working in close and positive partnership with parliamentarians and policymakers in support of elimination ambitions, ensuring that the UK’s current opportunity to lead the world in HPV elimination is not missed. For further information on HPV Coalition activity please contact the secretariat – provided by Incisive Health – at HPVCoalition@incisivehealth.com.
HPV Coalition members:
Co-Chair: Samantha Dixon, Chief Executive, Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust
Co-Chair: David Winterflood, Chief Executive, NOMAN Campaign
Peter Baker, Director, Global Action on Men’s Health and formerly Campaign Director HPV Action
Dr Jake Bayley, Consultant in sexual health and Chair, HPV Special Interest Group, British Association for Sexual Health and HIV
Dr Nigel Carter, Chief Executive, Oral Health Foundation
Professor Emma Crosbie, Professor of Gynaecological Oncology
Dr Kate Cuschieri, Director of Human Papillomavirus Research Group & Scottish HPV Reference Laboratory, University of Edinburgh
Dr Anne Connolly, Chair, Primary Care Women’s Health Forum
Robert Cornes, Male Cancer Information Nurse Specialist, ORCHID Penile Cancer
Dr Jennifer Davies-Oliveira, Clinical Research Fellow Gynaecology-Oncology, University of Manchester
Helen Donovan, Immunisation and Vaccination Specialist Nurse
Anita Harris, Director of Clinical Operations, Brook
Melvyn Hill, Chief Executive, UK Cervical Cancer
Catrin Hughes, Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare
Vas James, Head of Programmes, The Eve Appeal
Lorna Kelly, Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare
Tamara Kahn, Chief Executive, Oracle Cancer Trust
Athena Lamnisos, Chief Executive, The Eve Appeal
Hilary Maxwell, CEO and Chair, GO Girls
Dr Fernanda Perez, Policy and Public Affairs Executive, Royal Society of Public Health
Dr Gillian Prue, Reader in Chronic Illness, Queen’s University Belfast
Heather Randle, Professional Lead for Education and Primary Care, Royal College of Nursing
Professor Peter Sasieni, Professor of Cancer Prevention, King’s College of London
Dr Sue Sherman, Reader in Psychology, Keele University
Ceri Smith, Head of Policy and Parliamentary Affairs, Terence Higgins Trust
Martin Tod, Chief Executive, Men’s Health Forum
Professor Martin Widschwendter, Professor in Women's Cancer, University College London
Support for the HPV Coalition is provided by BD UK Ltd, Hologic UK Ltd, MSD UK Ltd, and Roche Diagnostics UK Ltd , who fund HPV Coalition meetings, activities, and the HPV Coalition secretariat, delivered by Incisive Health. Corporate supporters have no influence or input in the selection or content of HPV Coalition projects or communications. Members of the HPV Coalition receive no payment for their involvement in the group, except to cover appropriate travel costs for attending meetings. For further information on our please find the HPV Coalition’s Terms of Reference below.
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