A heartfelt plea to the PM
Dear Prime Minister,
In February I had the great pleasure of being part of a small group of supporters from Cancer Research UK to visit you in Downing Street to celebrate World Cancer Day.
I left feeling extremely positive and elated after hearing you commit to the Government’s support to improving cancer outcomes in the UK and, in particular, to improving the early diagnosis of cancer. Clearly, since February we have seen some unimaginable challenges due to the Covid- 19 pandemic but this has shown us the huge importance of investing in research, public health and our NHS.
My passion for improving early diagnosis stems from my own experience of my wife, Pam, being misdiagnosed three times before she was eventually admitted to hospital through A& E. Pam was diagnosed with stage 4 incurable bowel cancer. She died 12 months later, in March 2007, aged just 52… There was nothing she enjoyed more than spending time as a family with our two children…
Pam’s death motivated me to volunteer for Cancer Research UK… I’ve found it heartening to see the progress we’ve made in recent years. Back when I was a teenager in the 1970s, only a quarter of people diagnosed with cancer survived 10 years or longer. Now, it’s just over half – but it could be so much better. Every day, around 450 people die from cancer… These numbers are not inevitable.
The Comprehensive Spending Review is an opportunity for a cancer reset to truly fulfil the Government’s commitments… to
“increase cancer survival rates” and “boost early cancer diagnosis”.
The NHS Long Term Plan makes a commitment to detect 75 per cent of cancers at an early stage by 2028, now only eight years away… Many cancer patients are dying every day who could be saved. As of yet, no concrete steps have been made towards these ambitions.
Currently, millions of people are in a screening and testing backlog, which means thousands are missing out on vital early diagnosis and, sadly, dying unnecessarily.
From my own experience, I know the terrible strain as you wait between tests and diagnosis. The uncertainty, the fear, the dread and that ultimate feeling of losing control and helplessness…
Put simply, this is about saving lives. It’s about more couples spending longer together, about families sharing those special occasions together, about grandchildren being spoiled by grandparents… I’m regularly inspired by the many nurses, doctors, clinicians, scientists and researchers with their passionate commitment to improve cancer outcomes… I believe with the NHS and our incredible research, the UK could and should be the best in the world when it comes to cancer survival.
Hopefully one day we’ll be able to meet again on World Cancer Day to celebrate cancer being a disease of the past… I’m sure that is a world we all want our children and grandchildren to grow up in.
We’ll be looking to you to fulfil the commitments made in your manifesto – to provide the NHS cancer staff and life- saving medical research with the funding it needs in the upcoming Spending Review so that more lives can be saved.
Mr Johnson, please don’t delay action again, we are counting on you.
Thank you,
‘ We’ll be looking to you to fulfil the commitments in your manifesto so more lives can be saved’