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Anastasia Cameron has repeatedly faced discrimination based on her hair texture, starting from the age of seven when hairdressers turned her away for having Afro hair. Fast forward to her adulthood when she required a wig after chemotherapy, the issue of shortages of wigs with different textures for different ethnic communities was prevalent. Anastasia went on to bid for an NHS Wales contract to provide a range of wigs for cancer patients and ensure a choice that she had to fight for was now available for others.
Inappropriate aftercare for women of colour is a familiar theme. Denise Mayhew, an ambassador for cancer charity Black Women Rising, shared her personal experience of being stereotyped as “black and strong”, leading to not being provided with appropriate medical treatment, including late diagnoses and the dismissal of their pain. She mentioned the existence of “myths and taboos” that serve as barriers to diagnosis, hampering access to healthcare for certain groups within communities.
Breast cancer surgeon Zoe Barber mentioned that women from these communities are generally diagnosed later on, leading to more invasive and complex treatments and worse prognoses. Ms Barber added that support after cancer treatment had not always been adequate and that prosthetics for breasts, until recently, only came in white or peach skin tones, causing them to not match with other skin colours.
A lack of data on patient ethnicity remains a significant barrier to equitable healthcare, according to Judi Rhys from Tenovus Cancer Care, and is vital for proper information on tailored treatment pathways, disparities in screening uptake, and the need for essential services like hair replacement during treatment. The Welsh government has implemented “a number of improvements to data collection and analysis” to tackle this issue, and will continue to work with NHS Wales to solve this issue to ensure data is available when people are accessing healthcare
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