Prostate Cancer Screening Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Department of Health and Social Care
David Chadwick
Main Page: David Chadwick (Liberal Democrat - Brecon, Radnor and Cwm Tawe)Department Debates - View all David Chadwick's debates with the Department of Health and Social Care
Prostate Cancer Screening
David Chadwick Excerpts(3 days, 15 hours ago)
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David Chadwick (Brecon, Radnor and Cwm Tawe) (LD)
It is an honour to serve under your chairmanship, Dr Murrison. I am here today to speak on behalf of the 217 people in my constituency who have signed this petition, as well as those who have taken the time to write to me and those I met from Breconshire Friends of Prostate Cymru.
Today I want to share the experience of one constituent, Mr Peter Morris from Brecon, who contacted me following his own devastating diagnosis. At the age of just 56, Mr Morris was diagnosed with stage 4 prostate cancer entirely by chance after visiting his GP about an unrelated health issue. By the time his cancer was discovered, it had already spread beyond his prostate and was incurable.
Mr Morris believes that had he been offered screening at the age of 50, his cancer could have been detected before it spread, giving him a chance of curative treatment. Instead, he and his family have had to come to terms with a terminal diagnosis. I pay tribute to Mr Morris for his courage in sharing his experience and using an incredibly difficult personal situation to campaign for change that could save the lives of others.
He has expressed his deep disappointment at the UK National Screening Committee’s draft recommendations to limit screening to a very narrow group of men with specific genetic risk factors. As he rightly points out, many men will have no idea whether they carry those genetic variants, and what about men, such as Mr Morris, who have no known family history of the disease and would not qualify under the proposed criteria?
I recognise that screening is not without risks, including the potential for overdiagnosis and unnecessary treatment, but we must also recognise the real and devastating consequences of cancers being diagnosed too late.