Belief and experiences in relation to cancer of the Chinese living in Soho, London.

There is very little known about the cancer information needs of the Chinese community who live and work in
Soho, London. This is particularly the case with asylum seekers and refugees who often lack social networks
and support and have poor access to health services. The Chinese are an established and significant ethnic
group in England making up approximately 220,000 (0.45%) of the population in 2001. There are a large
number of Chinese people resident within Westminster (7,740) and Soho and West End has the largest
concentration of Chinese people within Westminster. There is no information about the cancer needs and
problems accessing cancer information and services of this Chinese population. In the light of this the
Research Centre for Transcultural Studies in Health, Middlesex University in collaboration with Macmillan
Cancer Relief have conducted a study to explore Chinese cultural-based beliefs about cancer and Chinese
experiences of cancer in order to develop culturally sensitive cancer information, particularly for the diverse and
heterogeneous Chinese community who live and work in Soho. Focus groups were conducted with Chinese
health experts, young Chinese, older Chinese, asylum seekers and 'below stairs' workers living or working in
Soho in order to elicit their meanings and experiences of cancer with the context of their every day lives. The
presentation will discuss the findings from this study and issues around accessing hard to reach communities
for research.