A strategy for neglected blood cancer needed
A Calderdale woman who went to A&E six times in two months before she was eventually diagnosed with leukaemia is backing a call for a better deal from the next government for those affected by the ‘neglected’ blood cancer.
Leukaemia UK has launched a manifesto which is calling on all political party leaders to save and improve more lives among patients diagnosed with leukaemia.
Looking ahead to the forthcoming general election, Leukaemia UK wants the next government to publish a cancer strategy in its first year.
The charity has identified four priorities for the strategy, helped by a group of nearly 300 people affected by the blood cancer.
These include more research, earlier diagnosis, improved access to treatments and better health data on leukaemia.
The manifesto is being supported by Tammy Guide, 52, from Sowerby Bridge.
Tammy lost count of the number of times she visited her GP in 2020 with symptoms ranging from lumps on her body and weakness, to high temperatures and sweating. She also went to A&E six times.
By the time she was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia through another routine blood test for a separate condition, she was so weak she could hardly walk.
Tammy has received several rounds of chemotherapy and has had a stem cell transplant but cannot have any more of either as she has reached the maximum she can have.
She is now on a newly-researched drug for life, and has had to give up her office job.
Tammy said: “I was fobbed off time after time and sent home. By the time they told me I had leukaemia I was struggling to walk.” Fiona Hazell, chief executive of Leukaemia UK, said: “Every day 27 people in the UK are diagnosed with leukaemia.
"Leukaemia is also the most common cancer among children, making up almost a third of childhood cancers.
"Yet despite this, leukaemia has been neglected by successive governments, and as a result survival rates remain low – acute myeloid leukaemia, for example, has a five-year survival rate of around 14 per cent, compared to an average of 55 per cent across all cancers in England.”