Becks takes his lead from example of Captain Tom

in pandemic policy”. He said: “Lockdown must never happen again.” Comparing figures from the NHS cancer registration for previous years to this year, the study estimated delays in cancer diagnosis due to coronavirus measures.

Some were caused because patients were too afraid of catching Covid-19 to get cancer symptoms checked, while others were down to the suspension of diagnostic cancer services.

The researchers examined the likely outcome of the delays in diagnosis from the lockdown on the four main cancers in England.

Calculated against expected lifespan of patients and the age of the anticipated deaths, it would mean that the equivalent of up to 63,229 life years would be lost.

It comes after a recent study predicted that the UK will see up to 35,000 excess cancer deaths in a year due to delays caused by the response to Covid-19.

This included delays to screening and diagnosis as well as delayed and cancelled treatments.

Professor Sullivan said: “This approach to pandemic lockdown must never happen again. We will not know the true scale of excess deaths from cancer due to delays in diagnosis and treatment for another three to five years.

“However, many of these patients will be much younger than the average age of those who died from coronavirus, 80 per cent of whom were over 70.

“Thus on average we will see many more years of lost life from excess deaths in our cancer patients.

“You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to see that the delays in cancer diagnosis will lead to thousands of deaths. Our study represents just the tip of the iceberg and we have been very conservative in our estimates.

“We have not included delays or changes to cancer treatment. And now we have a huge backlog of patients. I accept there may have been uncertainty at the beginning of the pandemic.

“But you cannot shut down the whole of society and not expect serious indirect consequences. Our approach to lockdown failed as we now have the worst Covid mortality in the world as well as a huge increase in non-covid deaths as an indirect effect.

“We need a completely new systematic, evidenced-based approach

‘Cancer services face being under more pressure’

to deal with cancer during pandemics, from screening services to palliative care.

“You cannot just sit on your hands waiting for a second wave. We have to get on with life and deal with what is happening to patients now and at