Chesterfield MP Toby Perkins has given his backing to the #CatchUpWithCancer campaign launched by Radiotherapy4Life.

The campaign was launched after Craig and Mandy Russell lost their daughter Kelly at the age of just 31 to bowel cancer. Her life expectancy was drastically cut short after her cancer treatment was stopped as a direct result of the Covid-19 response. Craig and Mandy are campaigning for the government and the NHS to boost cancer services to tackle the cancer diagnosis and treatment backlog caused by Covid-19.

Toby said “The effect on everyone when a loved one is diagnosed with cancer is tough and heart breaking. Cancer is something that touches the lives of every single one of my constituents. This campaign to improve waiting times for cancer treatment has been inspiring. The Covid pandemic as well as chronic Tory underfunding has caused massive backlogs in care and huge waiting times for both testing and treatment which threatens lives. These figures are especially stark when brought into consideration with more dangerous and less survivable cancers such as ovarian and pancreatic cancer. “

He added: “Since taking office in 2010, successive Conservative-led administrations have slashed NHS budgets in real terms, leading to rigorous targets on cancer diagnosis and treatment times being missed. Recent data from NHS England shows that just 72.9% of patients received their first treatment for cancer within two months after seeing a consultant while one-month waits for radiotherapy also reached a new low at 90.5% of patients against a target of 94%.”

Labour’s Shadow Health Wes Streeting announced Labour’s plan to deal with wait times to ensure early diagnosis and treatment. The next Labour Government will double the number of medical school places, create 10,000 new nursing and midwifery placements each year, and double the number of district nurses qualifying each year. The party promises that patients will be guaranteed a face-to-face appointment with a GP if they want one, a stark contrast, Streeting says, to the “outrageous failure” current target of seeing a GP within two weeks.

Only 16% of people diagnosed with a less survivable cancer will live for 5 years or more after diagnosis. Less survivable cancers are difficult to diagnose, with vague or non-specific symptoms. Screening programmes are often limited or non-existent and most of the general public are unaware of common symptoms. Only 10% of pancreatic cancer patients are diagnosed in time for life-saving surgery. The five year survival rate of pancreatic cancer is the lowest of all common cancers at 6.9% behind Belgium, Germany and the US. This is not good enough. In Scotland there is a 15% target for potentially curative pancreatic surgery. 3 in 4 (72.4%) women with ovarian cancer live for at least 1 year after diagnosis.

Almost half (46.2%) of women with ovarian cancer are still alive at least 5 years after diagnosis. Women diagnosed when they are younger than 65 do better than older women. Almost 15 out of 100 women (almost 15%) will survive their cancer for 5 years or more after they are diagnosed. To make sure as many women are able to survive their cancer early diagnosis and urgent treatment is key to ensuring that.