MEN from across Great Yarmouth are encouraged to sign up to a screening programme to detect if they could be at risk of a potentially fatal abdominal condition.

A team of medical staff from the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital will be at Yarmouth’s Market Gates shopping centre on Wednesday, October 10 to discuss and offer advice and information about abdominal aortic aneurysms (also known as AAAs).

The team of screening nurses will be on hand from 9am - 4pm and signing up men to come along to the hospital for a simple screening test.

An estimated 80,000 men, aged between 65 and 74, are affected by the condition, which is caused when the main blood vessel in the abdomen - the aorta - weakens and starts to expand. If undetected, the condition can be fatal and around 6,000 men die every year in England from it.

Sarah Pond, AAA screening co-ordinator said: “This is an opportunity for patients to come along and find out more information or sign up for screening. We can arrange a screening test which will only take a few minutes and can save lives.”

Men over 65 who have never had screening or treatment for an AAA but cannot make it to the Market Gates event can request a screening by calling 01603 288218 or emailing nicholas.loveridge@nnuh.nhs.uk