MUMS are to be offered one hour of free childcare to attend cervical cancer screening smear test.

The UK’s largest childcare platform is running a nationwide initiative with 500 childminders and nannies signed up.

Around 3,000 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer each year.

Cervical screenings are run out for women aged 25 to 64 and they can help identify cancerous cells that could potentially develop into something more serious.

Research has shown that 99.8% of cervical cancer cases are preventable and the smear test can help doctors catch an early diagnosis.

The new initiative is to help mothers fit in a test in their busy schedule by offering a free hour of childcare.

Allow the test only takes around five minutes, Childcare.co.uk are offering an hour to allow them extra time to travel to and from their appointment as well as for waiting times.

Richard Conway, Childcare.co.uk founder said, “There’s been a lot in the media about a fall in women not attending smear tests for various reasons, and I suspect a main one for mothers is not finding the time around their children.

“We wouldn’t want women missing out on their smear test because of a lack of childcare and we loved that individual childcarers were offering this, so we thought we’d help out. Within the first few hours of us asking our members, we had more than 500 childcarers sign up to the initiative. We hope this will make a huge difference!”