A private hospital in Bristol reported a 60 per cent rise in the number of young women paying for smear tests in a year.

Staff at Bristol's Spire Hospital The Glen believe that women are taking the action as a result of publicity over Jade Goody, the television celebrity who died from cervical cancer at the age of 27.

The NHS has a screening programme so women can take routine smear tests every three years after they turn 25.

Tests do not detect cancer but identify changes in the cervix that might lead to the disease if left untreated.

The case of reality-TV star Goody, who died on Sunday, has highlighted the issue of cervical cancer for young women.

Spire Hospital The Glen, which is next to The Downs, has reported an increase in the number of women under 25 paying £75.80 for cervical screening they cannot access through the NHS.

Since 2006 the number of smears in the first three months of the year has risen by 75 per cent, from eight to 35. And from 2008 to 2009 the number of women paying for the tests more than doubled, from 14 to 35.

Caroline Wallis, outpatient manager at The Glen, said: "We have had a lot of women in their early 20s coming in for smears. A lot of them are anxious to get results quicker rather than waiting several weeks on the NHS.

"If women have a family history and are anxious what the result may be that wait can be too long. And some women like to have their smears more frequently than on the NHS as well.

"There tends to be a Jade Goody effect, because women think if it can happen to her it could happen to them."

NHS Bristol public health consultant and cancer expert Angela Raffle said that screening under 25s might do "more harm than good" due to cell changes being more common in younger women.

She said: "The Spire Hospital provide a good quality service and I can fully understand why young women want a test. People think we don't screen under 25s because of cost-cutting, whereas we see it as an ethical issue.

"Under 25, the cervix is very immature and cell changes are very common and we would end up giving hundreds of thousands of women treatment, doing them no good and could threaten their childbearing."

Ms Wallis agreed that in under 25s immature cells could be difficult to tell apart from abnormal cells, but said that if either were found, women would be called back for more investigations.

She said: "We get a higher number of recalls in women under the age of 25 and we inform girls having this done that a letter may not be a sign of a problem, but it means that they are being watched so that if there are further changes they will be picked up."

Women who are sent letters advising them of the need for a further appointment can be seen at the private hospital, or by their GP. Spire has also identified a rise in the number of inquiries for the vaccine against HPV (human papilloma virus), a major cause of cervical cancer. It is currently only being made available to girls at secondary school.