Help to Health and the CRUK patient information leaflet

WHEN Cancer Research UK wanted to raise awareness of a service for those newly diagnosed with the disease or waiting for results – they chose the Help2Health leaflet service in pharmacies run by IDS UK.

The Patient Information Service – a confidential nurse helpline run by CRUK – is aimed at those who are coming to terms with a diagnosis or friends, family and carers who want more information.

CRUK Marketing Officer David Mason said patients often found it easier to speak to someone in confidence over the phone about their cancer.

“Often when people have been diagnosed they will reflect back and have questions that they need answering,” he said. They chose to use pharmacies for their leaflets as they have a high footfall and are geographically well spread out.

David explained: ”This has been like a pilot project for us but we have found it to be a good way of getting our information across. Pharmacies tend to be on the high street with a lot of people using them – we liked them because they were a more relaxed setting.”

A report from IDS UK indicated a good response to the CRUK Patient Information Service leaflet – and David said they were now planning to distribute information leaflets about specific cancers using the H2H service.

Business Development Manager Sarah O'Reilly explained it was important to have high profile charities such as CRUK using their service as it added credibility to the IDS UK brand.

“We are proud to be working with organisations such as Cancer Research UK. They chose H2H to raise the profile of one of their lesser known services and the campaign has worked really well. It is great to see that CRUK are planning to use H2H in the future,” she said.

Help2Health is a leaflet network across 750 pharmacies across the UK. It was introduced to help pharmacies meet the demands of the Government White Paper that calls on them to become health living centres 'promoting health and self-care.'

For more information on H2H contact Sarah O’Reilly on 01489 860006 or

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