Fight with brain cancer
The Lords becomes a House of tears as Tessa tells of her brave
TESSA Jowell received a rare standing ovation in the House of Lords yesterday after she spoke movingly about her brain cancer.
Peers applauded the former Labour Cabinet minister for more than a minute after she gave a speech on the need for new cancer treatments on the NHS.
Health and Social Care Secretary Jeremy Hunt was among spectators in the chamber who rose and clapped after 70-year-old Baroness Jowell’s emotional speech.
She said: ‘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.’ After the sustained applause, she added: ‘That belongs to all of us, so thank you very much.’
Peers wiped their eyes as they listened to her 15-minute speech, during which her voice cracked several times.
She told how last year she had got into a taxi but had then been unable to speak – and then had ‘two powerful seizures’. A tumour was removed from her brain, and she has been having radio and chemotherapy.
Speaking at the start of a 90-minute Lords debate, she asked ministers to say what they are doing to support innovative treatments. Baroness Jowell called for more global links between patients and doctors, to develop and test new treatments. She also wants to speed up the active drug trials by testing more than one at a time.
‘[Poet] Seamus Heaney’s last words were “do not be afraid”,’ she said. ‘I am not afraid, but I am fearful that this new and important approach may be put into the “too difficult” box. But I also have such great hope. So many cancer patients collaborate and support each other every day. They create that community of love and determination wherever they find each other. All we now ask is that doctors and health systems learn to do the same. Learn from each other.’
She also told peers: ‘Less than 2 per cent of cancer research funding in the UK is spent on brain tumours. No vital new drugs have been developed in the past 50 years.’
Health and social care minister Lord O’Shaughnessy said Lady Jowell offered hope to cancer sufferers, raising politicians’ sights on tackling this ‘terrible disease she suffers with such dignity’.
He said: ‘It is the right challenge and our efforts will not waver until the scourge of cancer no longer robs us of the ones we love.’
More investment was needed in research for brain cancer and making that happen was a specific objective of a departmental working group, the peer said.