In July 2003 the charity launched 12 language hotlines for speakers of other languages. These freephone helplines, which were officially launched in central London by Bollywood legend Sayeed Jaffrey and former EastEnders star Judi Shekoni, made Cancerbackup the first UK charity to provide a national telephone service for members of ethnic minority communities.

Calls to the helplines, which are being promoted throughout the UK, are answered by a Cancerbackup nurse and an EITI interpreter. The 12 languages covered by the service are Arabic, Bengali, Cantonese, French, Greek, Gujarati, Hindi, Polish, Punjabi, Turkish, Urdu and Vietnamese.

Joanne Rule, Cancerbackup's Chief Executive, has issued a call for the service to become part of mainstream NHS activity. "We know that in the UK today there are more than a million people, particularly among older generations, who speak very little English or none at all," she said. "Others may simply prefer to receive information and support in a language other than English. We believe this service is a major step forward."

The new service, which is being provided in partnership with EITI, has been welcomed by cancer campaigners. Isaac Dweben, the founder and Chief Executive of the support service Cancer Black Care, said, "This is an incredibly exciting development in the provision of vital cancer information for the UK's black and ethnic communities. We will be recommending the service - not only because of the language barriers it will help overcome - but also because of the charity's commitment to providing information relevant to the wide range of religions and cultures living in Britain today."

Related link

EITI Limited is not responsible for the content of the following, external Internet site.

Cancerbackup