STUDENTS at a college in north Kent will be the first in the area to be immunised against cervical cancer.

Girls in Year 8 and Year 13 at Wilmington Enterprise College in Common Lane, Dartford, will be the first in the town to start being immunised against cervical cancer when they get the first of three jabs on Wednesday (October 15).

Immunisations will start next week for girls in Gravesham, where the first session on October 21, will be at Northfleet School for Girls.

The national programme began in September and it will be rolled out across the rest of north Kent over the next few months.

NHS West Kent’s deputy director of public health Dr Brendan O’Connor said: “As the first widely available vaccine to protect against cancer, this is a real breakthrough.

“It does not, however, replace the need for cervical screening later in life because it does not target all forms of the virus.”

For more information, visit westkentpct.nhs.uk