When I was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2008, I was forced to do the hardest thing I have ever experienced, to tell my two daughters that their dad had cancer. Was our family of four about to become a family of three?
I was one of the lucky ones who survived, but cancer is becoming ever more prevalent in our lives. Experts state that one in two of us will get cancer in our lifetime, and Cancer Research UK projects that there will be 2.2 million new cancer cases in the current 5-year Parliamentary term, a 21% increase on the previous term.
With an ever-increasing challenge, progress against cancer is unfortunately slowing to a crawl. The UK has the highest cancer mortality rates than comparable countries, with one in three patients waiting longer than 31 days for radical radiotherapy, and the national target to start treatment within 62 days of an urgent referral has not been met since 2015.
The consequences of a failing system are evident in my constituency of Wokingham, where cancer care is delivered at the Royal Berkshire Hospital.
I am thankful that we have fantastic people working there, who represent the very best of our NHS.
However, cancer services are done in a building so old that the Viscount Melbourne was Prime Minister at the time of construction. It is a broken estate, in which a third of lifts don’t work at any one time, this (along with other factors) means that it isn’t meeting its cancer targets.
The previous Government let down my constituency by not funding a rebuild of the hospital and providing capacity for state-of-the-art cancer services.
The previous Government let down the cancer community, with some cancer types left completely without strategic direction, such as blood cancer. There simply are not enough dedicated specialists, and the statistics point towards a broken system.
That is why we must take a crucial first step, for the Government to create a dedicated cancer strategy for England. It is one of the best routes to create genuine improvements for patients, for their families and loved ones, and for those who work in our health system to research, prevent, diagnose, and treat cancer.
When there is strong, bold leadership, cancer strategies work. For example, having started in a similar position to England in the 1990s, countries like Denmark have races ahead in improving survival in recent decades. Denmark’s success is linked to a series of cancer strategies that successfully and strategically built on one another over a 20-year period to tackle critical issues facing cancer services.
England used to have cancer strategies, with the 2000 Cancer Plan for England being an obvious example, which set ambitious targets across research, prevention, and care outcomes. A report by the National Audit Office found that the strategy had supported progress in most aspects of patient experience.
The evidence shows that cancer strategies work if governments are willing to back it. I genuinely believe this plays a necessary part of turning around our failing cancer system. It is why I put forward legislation calling for the Government to create a national cancer strategy and led a Westminster Hall Debate specifically on the issue.
I was therefore delighted that during my debate, the Minister for Social Care (Stephen Kinnock) confirmed that the Government will be implementing a cancer strategy following the publishing of the 10-year health plan. This will come as incredibly welcome news across the cancer community, and I thank everyone who has continued to campaign diligently on this issue because it is a victory for their hard work, but now the devil will be in the details and if we are going to do this then we need to do it right.
We need to ensure that it covers all aspects of cancer prevention, research, and care. It requires political leadership to implement the strategy with measurable objectives and achievable timelines. It must have a regular, robust, and transparent reporting of implementation and it needs dedicated resources to enable the right change.
I will be following the Government’s cancer strategy closely, so let’s utilise this opportunity to fix what is broken, and work towards a better tomorrow.
We need a National Cancer Strategy
