Politically Speaking with Jade Botterill MP: Together we can fight cancer
Everyone has a story with cancer. Whether you’ve faced it yourself, or you’ve seen a loved one fight it, you’ll never forget that first moment you find out; that sinking pit in your stomach, the need to find out all the answers to questions you didn’t know existed minutes before, the powerless as you wait to see if the treatment works. Your life is changed in an instant.
It happened with my dad, so I know that feeling, and you probably do too.
Once you’ve felt it first-hand, you’ll know we have to act as fast as we can to stop this cruel disease, improving awareness, diagnosis, and treatment.
We should be so proud as a country that in those moments when all you can do is worry – about your health, your family, your future – that you don’t have to worry about how you will pay for the care. NHS nurses, doctors, hospital staff, and carers do incredible work supporting people through the darkest times, and giving them years of life they would otherwise not get, all free at the point of use.
But we cannot pretend everyone gets the quality and speed of treatment they deserve. Some of the hardest conversations I’ve ever had as an MP were with local people who didn’t get it.
I’ve met breastfeeding women whose symptoms were dismissed because they were a new mum, and young people with rarer cancers we aren’t diagnosing or treating effectively enough.
People deserve the best possible treatment, and where the NHS doesn’t have the funding or structures to deliver it, we are taking action.
That’s why I am so proud of our ambitious National Cancer Plan, and the steps we are taking to deliver it.
Following our record investment in the NHS, we are working to ensure three quarters of patients diagnosed from 2035 will be cancer-free or living well after five years.
It’s a bold target, but we are already making progress.
An extra 250,000 patients have been diagnosed or had cancer ruled out within 28 days over the last 12 months, compared with before July 2024. Cancer waiting times are improving, and we are investing £2.3 billion in diagnostics to deliver an extra 9.5 million tests by 2029, with over 100 Community Diagnostic Centres now open evenings and weekends.
There is still more to do, and in recent weeks we’ve seen how we’re taking that ambition further.
NHS patients will take part in a world-first trial of simple blood tests that could spot a wide range of abdominal cancers earlier, including bowel, pancreatic, ovarian, stomach, liver and prostate cancer. These cancers are often found too late, but this trial could pave the way for people across our country getting diagnosed and treated earlier.
The Prime Minister also listened to campaigners calling for progress on brain cancer. Last month, he launched an expert review to assess what has changed for patients since 2018, and what is still holding progress back, so we can get new treatments out of the lab and to patients faster.
I’ll never forget the day I found out my dad had cancer, but I’ll also never forget the day we were told he was cancer-free. More families deserve that day, we’ll keep working to give it to them.