Around a quarter of women aged 25-49 in west Kent are risking developing cervical cancer by not keeping up to date with their smear tests.

The Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust charity revealed that 26,600 people aged 25 to 49 did not attend their scheduled screening. This represents 22% of the 121,000 women in the age bracket.

The figures come from the West Kent PCT, now disbanded under health service changes, and cover 2011/12, the most recent statistics available.

Gynaecologists and health experts are urging women to keep up to date with their tests.

Rowan Connell, a consultant gynaecologist at BMI Somerfield Hospital on London Road, said: “It only takes a few minutes every three to five years and it is vital in protecting women, saving families from heartbreak and sometimes preventing avoidable deaths.”

The issue of cervical screening was regularly hit the headlines in 2008, when reality TV star Jade Goody was diagnosed with cervical cancer. She later said in interviews that she had ignored reminders about her tests. She died in March 2009.

That year health bosses revealed 143,590 women out of 173,000 women aged 25-64 in West Kent attended their appointments, boosted by the so-called “Jade Goody effect”.

But the latest figures show that even among women aged 50 to 64, only 20% are attending their scheduled tests. It represents 11,000 women out of 55,400.