AN ESSEX breast screening charity has recorded a huge number of women coming forward for checks after tragic cases of celebrities losing their cancer battles.

Westcliff organisation Lady McAdden Breast Screening Trust says the losses of Sarah Harding and Hatti Gayner have prompted women to come forward and ask for help.

Charity bosses are also urging women to check their breasts as October is breast cancer awareness month.

Last month Girls Aloud star Sarah Harding died after losing her battle with breast cancer aged 39 and then later in September dancer and presenter Hatti Gayner also died due to the disease.

NHS digital figures show that just 69 per cent of eligible women in Southend were up to date with their screenings at the end of March 2020 – meaning roughly 6,314 were not.

Alan Kirkman, chair of trustees at Lady McAdden Breast Screening Trust said the charity is fully booked until November.

He said: “We are the only charity in the UK who provide a one-to-one session with a specialist nurse to enable you to become breast aware. Since the tragic passing of young women - like Sarah Harding and Hatti Gayner, who were outside of both private and NHS screening programs, we have seen a further uptake in appointments especially in younger women wanting to know more about how to check themselves.

“With Breast Cancer being the most common form of cancer in women, anything that raises the importance of women being breast aware or attending their routine screening is helpful in getting the message that women need to know what is normal for them and regularly check themselves.”

The Lady McAdden Appeal was set up, and named in honour of Lady McAdden, the wife of the late Sir Stephen McAdden MP, for Southend East from 1950 until he died in office in December 1979.

Its doors opened for the UK’s first Breast Screening Unit on 22 May 1976, which was formally opened by HRH Princess Margaret on 27 June 1977.

Mr Kirkman added: “Our breast awareness appointments can be accessed either online by video call or face to face - we are now almost fully booked until the beginning of November.

“However, we are trying to add more appointments and in addition, to make our services more accessible, we are bringing our nurses into the community – with Coco Boo Lingerie in Leigh and The Ivy Essex Beauty Bar in Westcliff.”