Cancer touches most families. There are with around 375,000 new cancer cases in the UK every year – around 1,000 every day – in other words: a new diagnosis every two minutes. Every day that passes, some 460 British lives are lost to cancer.
Yet despite all this, most cancers are abated or cured, partly because how much progress has been made in catching cancers earlier, when it is easier to treat. As a result, cancer survival rates have doubled over the last 50 years.
Nevertheless, there is no room for complacency. A recent report by Cancer Research UK has said that if we do not take drastic action to diagnose, treat, and fund research in the next ten years, we risk sacrificing improvements made.
Which is why I support the report’s proposed creation of a National Cancer Council and the closing of a £1 billion funding gap over the next decade to continue our progress against this disease.
The Government knows what must be done. The Prime Minister has put record levels of funding available for the NHS, including an additional £3.3 billion in 2023-24 and 2024-25 to enable rapid action to improve emergency, elective and primary care performance. This will bring the NHS budget to £165.9 billion in 2024-25.
Last week in Parliament I met representatives of Pancreatic Cancer UK, including a constituent from Quadring, who set out the challenges implicit in detecting cancer of the pancreas. With pancreatic cancer care, the UK does not rank well compared with other countries, so I agreed to support their campaign to speed up diagnosis, with consequent faster treatment.
The Government’s record spending on the NHS is appreciated, but the unprecedented growth in demand for access to healthcare – largely a result of mass immigration – is creating immense pressure on limited resources.
Nevertheless, the Government must improve access to medical screenings and tests for those in need – the combined incidence rates for all cancers are highest in people aged 85 to 89, and more than a third of all cancer cases are diagnosed in people aged 75 and over. In the case of cancer of the pancreas, early diagnosis is vital for only 25% survive one year after their diagnosis, and only 5% for five years.
Access to healthcare at the time it is needed both increases the chances of successful treatment and provides reassurance for all those facing cancer, as well as numerous other illnesses.
In the words of surgeon Atul Gawande:
“We’ve been wrong about what our job is in medicine. We think our job is to ensure health and survival. But really it is larger than that. It is to enable well-being. And well-being is about the reasons one wishes to be alive.”
Treating sufferers of severe conditions means doing what is medically necessary for the preservation of lives, but we also need to protect patients’ quality of life at times of doubt and difficulty.
Fear hurts, but it can be eased by knowing that help is at hand. That is why I am backing organisations like Pancreatic Cancer UK.
