As the school holidays commence all over the country, Aurora has been gripped with a general feeling of nostalgic longing for the excitement experienced at the prospect of those long, glorious, homework-free weeks stretching ahead; full of trips, excursions, buckets and spades, ice cream and fun!

We all remember the joys of classroom tidy ups and end-of-term trips with packed lunches on coaches to far flung zoos, museums and adventure parks....

We have therefore been busy doing our own ‘end-of-term' tidy up, making the Aurora office a shining example of tidiness and efficiency.

We hope you all enjoy your own holidays with plenty of sun and no homework! Here's the top 20 for the month of July.

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July's chart saw the top three health subjects remain as non-movers. The ‘big three' - obesity, cancer and nutrition - held the top three spots for the second month in a row. One of the five re-entries was diet/slimming/weight loss, perhaps due to the public's obsession with getting slim for our holidays. The two brand new entries were prostate and cervical cancer. The latter has certainly been a topic of discussion in the Aurora office, following the Channel 4 Dispatches programme earlier this month.

Below we dig deeper into some of this month's most interesting health stories.

Obesity
The country's obesity problem remained a consistent and prominent public health focus for health journalists in July. A report by the Healthcare Commission and the Audit Commission, reported in The Guardian and The Daily Telegraph, warned that the obesity epidemic and binge-drinking culture threatens to overwhelm the NHS. Deaths linked to alcohol have doubled in men and almost doubled in women in a decade.

Later in the month, Britain's Chief Medical Officer, Sir Liam Donaldson, warned that obesity was this country's most serious health crisis and said that obese people are not doing enough to lose weight. His comments were reported by The Independent and The Daily Telegraph.

NHS staff in Birmingham seem to be taking Sir Liam's advice to get fit and healthy. More than 200 staff have been equipped with pedometers and offered motivational fitness coaches to help them slim. The £250,000 scheme at Birmingham East and North Primary Care Trust is being run by a US healthcare company, who according to the articles in the METRO and The Daily Telegraph, want to roll out the programme across the country.

It was interesting to read in the Financial Times, The Guardian and Daily Express about a consortium of food, soft drink, fitness and broadcasting companies that are joining forces with the Government to launch the biggest anti-obesity marketing campaign ever seen in Britain, in a move intended to project a more proactive approach to tackling health problems.

Aurora was relieved to learn that the country's obesity problem could be helped by the Duchess of York who, according to The Sunday Times this month, has offered her services to the Government as an ‘Obesity Czar' in an effort to slim the nation's waistlines.

Cancer
The row over top-up care for NHS patients rumbled on this month sparking lively discussion in the Aurora office. The head of the British Medical Association (BMA) stated that cancer patients who pay for extra drugs should be denied free care on the NHS. A report in the Financial Times detailed a widespread public debate over the issue. The BMA warned that the issue was more complex than simply allowing cancer patients to pay for drugs that the NHS declines to fund.

On a more positive note, The Sun and The Daily Telegraph stated that the number of cancer survivors in the UK has hit two million, a big increase on previous estimates. Researchers from King's College London's Thames Cancer Registry examined disease data to calculate the new figure for cancer survivors. Until now, health charities have quoted findings from the early 1990's, showing that the UK had 1.2 million people living with, or after, cancer.

Cervical cancer
Cervical cancer entered the chart for the first time ever, which was not surprising considering the Government's announcement about its choice of cervical cancer vaccine. The decision sparked a certain amount of debate in the papers.

A paper published in the BMJ and written by the Health Protection Authority, showed that savings of up to £18.6 million per year would be made if Cervarix was chosen in place of Gardasil.

The cost saving meant that older girls, aged 17 - 18, are also to be offered the vaccine. Dawn Primarolo, the Public Health Minister, announced that an extra 300,000 girls could be included in the programme.

And finally,
After our recent hard work and the gleaming, tidy office in good shape for the rest of the year, Neil and Claire have promised us our own end-of-term trip somewhere exciting!  We are off to get our (healthy) lunch boxes out and cagoules at the ready…we may even spend some pocket money in the gift shop.

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Aurora strives to apply quantitative, qualitative and emotional understanding of health issues to client communication programmes. Dove-tailing informed PR activity with the media's appetite enables us to assist clients with communicating their vision.

To find out more, contact Neil Crump or Claire Eldridge on 020 7424 7940. 

The top 20 chart provides our interpretative snap-shot of health stories in the national press and is based upon a quantitative process. Analysis based on news from the 26 June to 25 July 2008.