Corporate Health Articles - Royal Mail

BE BREAST AWARE

Sharon Clarke, a Customer Operations Manager from Tyneside Mail Centre nearly didn’t attend the ‘Out of the blue’ invite for a mammogram when she received it. ‘ I was too busy – and besides, nothing would be wrong.’ She said.

Breast cancer now affects one woman in 9 during her lifetime and although rare in men, accounts for around 250 cases each year in the United Kingdom. Despite greater awareness and screening being more widely available every week 730 new breast cancers are diagnosed and 250 women die from the disease. With figures like this there cannot be many people in the UK who do not know a breast cancer sufferer. Although greatly feared by women, developments in treatment and survival rates are improving; on average 74 per cent of women are still alive five years after diagnosis and surgery has moved away, where possible, from the radical mastectomy, opting for the less disfiguring lumpectomy. There can surely be few things more devastating to a woman that the thought of losing a breast and reconstructive surgery and prosthetics have come a long way in recent years to help improve quality of life........

TESTICULAR CANCER

When postman Roger Karal from Sherbourne DO was told that he had testicular cancer in January 2006 he found it hard to take it in. “It was a surreal moment” he said “Although I knew they were talking to me, I felt completely out of the situation numb and so shocked I found it very hard to concentrate on what was being said.’
It’s a sensitive subject among men and two words guaranteed to strike fear into their hearts – testicular cancer. Fear of the unknown and the natural reluctance to have their private parts inspected prodded and poked lead many men to wait longer than they should before seeking treatment. Cancer of the testicles is not a common cancer, however, it is the most common cancer in men aged 20 to 34. If caught early however, testicular cancer can usually be treated and cured.......


PUT YOUR BACK INTO IT!

Robert Symonette is an LSM operator at Peterborough mail centre. Originally from the USA, Robert stayed in the UK after leaving the American air force 12 years ago. “I like to think I was their secret weapon!” Robert joked. However there was not much to joke about when Robert slipped on the stairs one morning and found himself in hospital for three days with disc damage. Barely able to move, and in agony, it was 2 months before Robert could go back to work. After initial physiotherapy, on a visit to Employee Health Services, the doctor, seeing how much pain and discomfort Robert was in referred him to REHAB WORKS situated in Mount Pleasant Sorting Office. This rehabilitation centre is dedicated to the treatment of Royal Mail employees suffering from chronic musculoskeletal problems either through injury or where chronic pain is present. Not every case is suitable but EHS can send through personnel for individual assessment. At Rehab Works, rather than manipulation of the back, exercises and training are taught to help back pain sufferers help themselves............


DYING FOR A FAG?

Tobacco is the only legally available consumer product, which kills people when it is used as it is meant to be. Every year, around 114,000 smokers in the UK die as a result of their habit and despite it being illegal to sell cigarettes to anyone below the age of 16 about 450 children start smoking every day.About half of all regular cigarette smokers will eventually be killed by their habit with smoking causing about thirty per cent of all cancer deaths, 17% of all heart disease deaths and at least 80% of deaths from bronchitis and emphysema. So what is actually in a cigarette? Firstly nicotine which is highly addictive. It stimulates the central nervous system, increasing the heartbeat rate and blood pressure. Then there’s tar brown and treacly in appearance deposited in the lungs and respiratory system and gradually absorbed. And Carbon Monoxide binds to haemoglobin in the bloodstream more easily than oxygen does making the blood carry less oxygen round the body. A pretty grim picture.So after years of abuse is it worth giving up? It certainly is. Your risk of developing lung cancer will be reduced as will your risk of heart disease (in ten years to no more than a non smoker). The accelerated decline of lung function will be reduced and your reproductive health as well as your general health and ability to recover from surgery will improve.Royal Mail is committed to helping their employees with the difficult task of quitting the habit.......

editor of The Courier - Royal Mail