Childhood Cancer Outcomes

Holly Mumby-Croft Excerpts

Tuesday 26th April 2022 Commons Chamber

[Holly Mumby-Croft (Scunthorpe) (Con)]

I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Gosport (Dame Caroline Dinenage) for her work in securing the debate. I pay tribute to the right hon. Member for Alyn and Deeside (Mark Tami) for sharing his personal insight into the situation with the House. This subject is incredibly important, and I know that we will hear further contributions from Members across the House, emphasising that the issue affects us far and wide across the country and in the communities that we represent, and highlighting once again how devastating cancer can be.

Cancer is a horrible disease. Of course, we all know the statistic of one in two people suffering some form of cancer during their lifetimes. We would be hard pressed to find anyone in this House who has not been affected by that devastating and cruel illness in one way or another. It is that much more devastating and cruel when it makes a child poorly.

I was recently contacted by my constituent Laura, who explained the impact that cancer had had on her family. I have the privilege, with Laura’s permission, to say a few words about how this terrible disease has affected her and her whole family. Laura had a daughter called Ebony. Many people in Scunthorpe will know Ebony and her story. In 2016, just before Ebony’s 10th birthday, the family noticed that she had a swelling on her arm. As many of us would, they assumed that she had perhaps had a bump in the playground and that it would get better, but unfortunately it did not. After a trip to the GP, Ebony and her mum went to a Sheffield hospital, where she saw a specialist and had a scan, and they heard the terrible news that no parent ever wants to hear: that Ebony had cancer. I cannot imagine how that felt, and I know hon. Members on both sides of the House share that.

The cancer Ebony had was rhabdomyosarcoma, a rare type of cancer that can affect soft tissue. It can affect anyone of any age but, sadly, it most often affects children, and the form she had was particularly aggressive. Of course, Ebony underwent treatment, which was horrendous for her and horrendous for her family. Despite the fact that that was very difficult, Laura tells me that she remained a very special and caring girl all the way through her treatment. She remained brave even when her hair fell out.

I did not have the opportunity to meet Ebony, but it is clear that she was a remarkable person. She got to ring the bell twice after her rounds of chemotherapy were complete. While she was undergoing treatment, one source of joy for Ebony and her family was that she was going to be a big sister. She was so excited that she could not wait to meet her little sister and even picked out a name, Ella. In September 2019, the family were given the news that the cancer had returned and had spread to Ebony’s abdomen. She made the decision not to continue treatment and she passed away on 24 January 2020.

I sit on the all-party parliamentary group on brain tumours, and we discuss these issues all the time. I will quickly raise some of the issues we hear about from the specialists and clinicians we talk to: the significant challenges they face in accessing the money the Government have allocated for research into brain tumours. It is costly in time and resources to make those applications. I urge the Government to do all they can to remove the bottlenecks that those clinicians face and to ensure that they get proper feedback when applications are unsuccessful, so that they can access the funding and find the hope that we need to give to young people suffering from this devastating disease and to their families.