A free same day delivery service for the morning after pill has been launched in Manchester for the very first time.
Available from now until Friday 30 September, it gives people the option to order emergency contraceptives to their home rather than going to a pharmacy, GUM clinic or GP surgery.
Delivering between 6-9pm in the week, packages will come straight to your door via discreet bike courier service.
Orders must be placed online before 5pm to qualify, then your free same day delivery will be confirmed separately via WhatsApp.
Rider Lucy will deliver your package between 6-9pm. / Image: The Lowdown
Free delivery will be available to postcodes M1, M2, M3, M4, M12, M13, M14, M15, M16, M21 and M20 during the week only.
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The service has been introduced by The Lowdown, a contraception review, advice and prescriptions platform trying to make women’s health “less of a minefield”.
According to Founder Alice Pelton, one third of women in the UK don’t currently have easy or convenient access to contraception.
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Inspired by her own experiences of struggling to find the right one, she launched The Lowdown in 2019 and has spent the last five years talking to thousands about the problem.
The Lowdown is a one-stop shop for people to choose, access and use the right contraception and reproductive healthcare for them, but it is not free at the point of use.
However, it offers the full range of brands of pill whereas on the NHS choice is more limited.
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On the website, a Levonorgestrel emergency contraceptive is priced at £9.50 and an EllaOne pill is £27. In total there are a choice of four morning after pills – Levonorgestrel, EllaOne, Ezinelle and Levonelle OneStep – whilst on the NHS you can get both Levonelle and ellaOne free of charge
Speaking on the Manchester trial, Alice Pelton, Founder of The Lowdown, said: “The Lowdown is all about making contraception less complicated, and this pilot is part of our bold plans to put control into the hands of women and people with vaginas.
“There’s so much unnecessary stigma around emergency contraception, and it’s too difficult for many women and their partners to access it quickly and conveniently. These medications are incredibly safe and effective, and getting hold of them should not need to involve travelling long distances or having an awkward public conversation with a pharmacist.”
Dr Melanie Davis-Hall, GP and Medical Director at The Lowdown, added: “Despite living in the 21st century there are still significant barriers to accessing contraception. And young people embarking on their university career may have even more difficulty accessing emergency contraception in an unfamiliar city at a vulnerable time of their life where many start having more sex!
The Lowdown hopes to destigmatise the issue of emergency contraception by making it more widely available to people who need it.
Its website is visited by 70,000 people a month, with all orders reviewed and approved by The Lowdown’s pharmacy team before dispatch.
Whilst you don’t need to speak to a medical professional before placing an order, you will be required to fill out a short questionnaire online to help the team identify which contraceptive will best suit your needs.
Sharing the news of the morning after pill same day delivery on its Instagram page, The Lowdon described the move as “Just Eat but for contraception”.
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It wrote: “BIG NEWS
“We’ve just launched a same day delivery of the morning after pill if you live in Manchester for the rest of September!
“Just make sure you order before 5pm on weekdays and double check your postcode is eligible (central Manchester postcodes please!).
“We will deliver your morning after pill straight to your door the very same day from 6-9pm.”
NHS to begin offering new one-minute jab to women with ‘aggressive’ form of cancer
Emily Sergeant
The NHS is set to begin offering new immunotherapy for hundreds of women with aggressive cervical cancer across the country.
Pembrolizumab – which experts have described as being able to ‘take the handbrake off’ the body’s immune system to target cancer – will now be presented as a new treatment option for women in England with locally-advanced cervical cancer, which means the cancer has grown beyond the cervix to regions such as the pelvic wall, but not yet spread further around the body.
Trials found that adding pembrolizumab to standard chemoradiotherapy helped keep cancer ‘at bay’ for longer, and improved survival rates overall.
Two years after starting the treatment, nearly seven in 10 patients (68%) were still living without their cancer progressing, compared with 57% for those receiving chemoradiotherapy alone, according to NHS figures.
The trial also found that 82.6% of patients were still alive three years after treatment with pembrolizumab and chemoradiotherapy, compared with 74.8% with chemoradiotherapy alone.
Hundreds of women with aggressive cervical cancer are to be offered a new immunotherapy treatment.
It marks one of the biggest improvements in treatment for the disease in years, and could help more women survive and stay cancer-free in the long term.
The drug is either given every three or siz weeks via an infusion, or as a ‘one-minute’ injection, alongside chemoradiotherapy.
The NHS estimates around 550 patients in England will be eligible for the treatment – which has been approved this week by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) – over the next two years.
Patients will now receive fast-tracked access, funded by NHS England’s Cancer Drugs Fund.
“This is great news for women facing a diagnosis of aggressive cervical cancer, and represents one of the biggest improvements in treatment for this disease in recent years,” commented Professor Peter Johnson, who is the NHS National Clinical Director for Cancer.
“Combining this immunotherapy with existing treatment has had very positive effect for patients in trials, helping the body’s immune system to target cancer more effectively.
“We’re delighted it will be available for patients on the NHS as it could help hundreds more women survive and stay cancer-free in the long-term.”
Featured Image – NappyStudio (via Unsplash)
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Andy Burnham wants to bring the ‘Greater Manchester way’ to Westminster
Emily Sergeant
Andy Burnham has set out his vision for the country if he is to become Prime Minister.
In case you need brining up to speed first, after it was announced earlier this month that Andy Burnham had clinched the victory in the crucial Makerfield by-election, winning 24,927 votes (54.8% vote share) and a majority of 9,231, he then went onto announce his intention to run for Labour Party leader, and therefore Prime Minister, after Keir Starmer confirmed he would be stepping down.
And this week, Mr Burnham has now delivered his first speech as part of his ongoing campaign, addressing how he plans to give the country a ‘new direction’.
Burnham says that he wants to bring the ‘Greater Manchester way’ to Westminster.
A lot has been discussed and reported on when it comes to Burnham’s intentions to create a so-called Number 10 North here in Manchester, but what exactly does it mean to take the ‘Greater Manchester way’ to the capital?
“The Greater Manchester way is based on strong partnership between all sectors: public, private, community, voluntary, academic, faith, and our trade unions,” Burnham said in his speech.
He continued: “When I started as Mayor in 2017, we set about building a new approach, a new politics based on the exact opposite of the Westminster approach.
“Place-first, not party-first. Problem-solving, not point-scoring. Long-term, not short-term.
“A decade on, it’s incredible how much we’ve been able to achieve by working together instead of fighting against one another.”
Burnham said he feels the truth is that the country spends ‘too much time arguing and not enough time doing’ and that for Britain to get back where it ‘should be’, his Government would ask everyone to ‘face the same way’ and then ‘pull in that same direction together’.
He declared that No 10 North will be the ‘nerve centre’ for a rewired Britain.
“It will be the conduit through which we redistribute power and resources across the UK,” he concluded. “It will coordinate all parts of Government, at national and local level, to agree a long-term economic strategy and help all places set new growth ambitions.”
Georgina Pellant -
22nd September 2022 
