Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
UK trailing in survival stakes
DAME Tessa Jowell pleaded for better cancer care in a moving speech yesterday.
The Labour veteran had Lords in tears as she spoke of her own terminal brain tumour.
She stunned the Lords into silence during a heartfelt speech in which she spoke about her diagnosis and urged other patients not to give up hope of living decent lives.
But she also highlighted the shocking underfunding in neurological cancers, which receive only 2% of research monies and have had no new vital drugs for the past 50 years.
As she delivered her impassioned plea, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt – architect of savage NHS cuts – watched in silence.
And after she spoke, peers – many of whom had been brought to tears – gave the 70-year-old the first ever standing ovation in the upper chamber.
Looking frail and her voice cracking with emotion, Dame Tessa said: “Cancer is a tough challenge to all health systems, and particularly our cherished NHS.
“We have the worst survival rate in western Europe. Partly because diagnosis is too slow. Brain tumours grow very quickly and are hard to spot.
“In the end, what gives a life meaning is not only how it is lived, but how it draws to a close.
“I hope this debate will give hope to other cancer patients like me, so that we can live well with cancer, not just be dying of it. All of us, for longer.”
Wearing a beanie hat with white wires coming from the back, the former Culture Secretary spoke starkly of her glioblastoma – a rare and aggressive cancer that affects fewer than 3,000 people in England every year.
She said: “I was on my way to talk about Sure Start projects. I got into a taxi but couldn’t speak. I had two powerful seizures. I was taken to hospital.
“Two days later, I was told that I had a brain tumour, glioblastoma multiforme, or GBM. A week later the tumour was removed by an outstanding surgeon at the National Hospital in Queen Square. I then had radio and chemotherapy.”
But Dame Tessa grimly declared the disease has “a very poor prognosis”.
She told how she believes the Eliminate Cancer Initiative, which allows patients to take experimental risks with their treatment, could mark a breakthrough in the fight against the disease – if ministers support it.
Dame Tessa spoke of poet
Seamus Heaney, saying:
“[His] last words were, ‘Do not be afraid’. I am not afraid, but I’m fearful this new CANCER survival rates in the UK are among the poorest in Europe at 49%.
We lag more than 5% behind the European average and are the 19th lowest across the continent.
A report from the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry found that Sweden led with 64%. The only area where Britain bettered the European average was survival against skin cancer.
Emma Greenwood, from Cancer Research, said: “If survival is to improve, the UK needs to get better at diagnosing and treating cancer earlier.”