Brain Tumours

Iain Stewart Excerpts

Monday 18th April 2016 Westminster Hall

[Iain Stewart (Milton Keynes South) (Con)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Buck. I add my congratulations to those that have been offered to the hon. Member for Warrington North (Helen Jones), who spoke to the motion so powerfully.

In addition to the moving personal stories that some of my constituents have told me, one of my motivations for speaking today is that I am proud to have in my constituency the national head office of the charity Brain Tumour Research. I pay tribute to Sue Farrington Smith and her team for the incredible work that they do. Earlier this year, I had the great privilege of attending their launch event and open day in their new Milton Keynes offices. I urge colleagues to visit them if they get the opportunity. Mine was an inspirational visit. I saw the passion and determination that the staff, volunteers, clinicians, family members and supporters put into securing better research funding, better and earlier diagnoses, and support for patients and their families.

The debate shows the value of the petitions system. I was at the office a day or two before the deadline for registering, and signatures were just below the 100,000 level. Great excitement was palpable as the number neared the magic threshold. The system works.

I want to make two brief points about the substance of the debate. First, I echo the Committee’s call with respect to funding priorities being set by research bodies. I agree with its conclusion that research gaps cannot be the sole responsibility of the voluntary sector. The Government have a leadership role too. The National Cancer Research Institute partners have an invaluable role to play, but we cannot over-rely on them. I hope that one of the Minister’s takeaways from the debate will be to have a fresh look at the Government’s role in identifying and addressing funding gaps.

I hope that the other point I want to make is not naive. It is about the diagnostic procedure. I have no medical background, but in the six years I have been a Member I have encountered a range of medical conditions, including some cancers—such as pancreatic cancer and neuroblastoma, which tragically took away the life of my young constituent, Henry Allen, at only four years of age—and other diseases that are not cancers, such as Niemann-Pick type C, that all have symptoms that can be difficult to identify. The research, treatment and cure will be unique to each condition, but I have found that they share a common problem of late diagnosis.

The symptoms are often not readily connected to the condition and may be general, such as nausea, pain and fatigue. GPs may see only a handful of such cases throughout their careers. Often, there is a lengthy process in which a condition is dismissed. It is often A&E, as we have heard, that makes a diagnosis later on. Alternatively, there may be a lengthy ping-pong between the GP and the consultant to find out what the condition is not, but without finding out what it is. Surely we can find a better system of diagnosis. When the obvious causes of a symptom have been ruled out, the patient could be sent for a comprehensive MOT to find out what is wrong more quickly. Funding cannot be the issue. How much money is wasted by that constant back and forth?

Earlier diagnosis is important for treatment, as well as in the search for a cure, through tissue being given for research purposes. There is so much more that could be done. I wish I could expand on that point, but I hope that the Minister responds to what I have said.