A CANCER awareness campaign is urging people from Gloucestershire to visit their doctor if they have heartburn as it can be a sign of cancer.

The Be Clear on Cancer four-week campaign, launched on Monday, January 26, aims to raise awareness in Gloucestershire, Avon and Wiltshire that ongoing heartburn can be a sign of oesophageal or stomach cancer, and that early diagnosis is crucial and means treatment is more likely to be successful.

The campaign, led by Public Health England (PHE), working in partnership with the Department of Health and NHS England, will see adverts running nationally in the press, encouraging people to visit their doctor if they have heartburn most days for three weeks or more.

Dr Shona Arora, centre director for the Avon, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire PHE Centre, said: “If we’re to improve early diagnosis rates, we need to encourage people with symptoms to go to their doctor, which is what this latest Be Clear on Cancer campaign aims to do.”

The campaign launch coincides with results of a new survey commissioned by PHE which reveals that nationally, only 55 per cent of people would visit their doctor if they experience the above symptom.

There were 62 registered oesophago-gastric cancer deaths in South Gloucestershire in 2012, including 45 males and 17 females.

For further information about the signs and symptoms visit www.nhs.uk/ogcancer.