Childhood Cancer Outcomes

Anthony Browne Excerpts

Tuesday 26th April 2022 Commons Chamber

[Anthony Browne (South Cambridgeshire) (Con)]

I, too, congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Gosport (Dame Caroline Dinenage) on securing this important debate. The level of attendance shows how important this issue is for MPs and for the country as a whole. According to the charity Children with Cancer UK, on average 12 children and young people are diagnosed with cancer every day. On 4 February 2014, nine-year-old Georgia Morris was one of them. I declare an interest because her parents, Richard and Selena, are friends, and Georgia went to my children’s school.

Georgia was diagnosed with neuroblastoma, a brain cancer that predominantly affects children. No one knows what causes neuroblastoma, or how to cure or treat it. Georgia got the best care possible from the NHS—her parents are keen to stress that—but it was care within the bounds of contemporary medical knowledge, which is severely limited. Since no one knows how to cure neuroblastoma, Georgia’s treatment was essentially a series of clinical trials of chemotherapy, radiotherapy and immunotherapy. She was given particular dosages to see whether they had any impact, and she showed extraordinary fortitude in the face of that. All those trials were funded by charity, with virtually no support from Government. According to Children with Cancer UK, of the 12 children and young people diagnosed with cancer every day, two will not survive. On 16 October 2016, aged 12, Georgia was one of them, dying at home with her family at her bedside. She would now be 18.

Georgia is far from unique. As we heard earlier, more children die from cancer than from any other sickness. When she was diagnosed, her parents were surprised to be told that there was no known treatment for neuro-blastoma, and little research into finding one. After she died they set up Georgia’s Fund, and have so far raised more than £200,000 for the charities Neuroblastoma UK and Children with Cancer UK. Working with the country’s top specialists, they are pushing research forwards. That is an amazing achievement, but it is also a drop in the ocean. I have many cancer research facilities in my constituency, which I visit, and I know that finding cures is painstakingly time consuming and expensive. Charities cannot do it on their own, and it is essential that Governments do more to support research into cancers that take lives so young.

As my hon. Friend the Member for Gosport (Dame Caroline Dinenage) said, we need a national mission for childhood cancer. It is certain that in time a cure for neuroblastoma will be found. It will be too late for Georgia, but not for other children. The more research we do now, the more young lives will be saved. We must do all we can to ensure that innocent children no longer have to go through what Georgia and her parents and family went through.