Cancer Strategy

Karen Lee Excerpts

Thursday 22nd February 2018 Commons Chamber

[Karen Lee (Lincoln) (Lab)]

I thank the hon. Member for East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow (Dr Cameron) for bringing about this debate, which matters hugely to a lot of people.

Most of the speakers today will talk about the facts, figures and statistics, but I will talk about the impact of cancer on people behind the statistics. A lot of us in the Chamber have been affected by cancer. My daughter died at just 35 of breast cancer, and I will talk about cancer from a patient’s perspective. One in eight women develop breast cancer in their lifetime, and 80% survive for five years or more. About 95% of women will survive for one year, and my daughter survived for 13 months. Recent data show that 11,500 women and 80 men in the UK still die from breast cancer every year.

My Lynsey was diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer in April 2010, and she died just 13 months later. She was a very bright girl, with a degree in politics and a degree in social work, and she worked with underprivileged children. She had a husband and three small children, who were two, four and seven when she died. She was treated at Nottingham City Hospital under Dr Steve Chan—she had chemotherapy, radiotherapy and a mastectomy—and her treatment was just amazing. The staff just could not have been better. She came home for the final three weeks of her life to die, and the unqualified team that came in to support me and her husband, Mike, were just amazing as well. I can never thank them enough.

I want to talk a little about the information that Breast Cancer Now, a charity, has made available to me. I am an ambassador for it, because I decided that one of the things I wanted to do when I got elected was to be an ambassador for a breast cancer charity. It has said that

“it will be challenging to meet the objectives set out in the Cancer Strategy unless corrective action is immediately taken”.

My Lynsey’s cancer was advanced—it was stage 3 when diagnosed, so screening probably would not have helped her. The Breast Cancer Now report states:

“Breast screening is a key initiative to ensure the early detection and diagnosis of breast cancer. Although controversy still exists around over-diagnosis, its benefits are recognised to outweigh its risks in the Cancer Strategy, in detecting 30% of breast cancers and saving 1,300 lives a year from breast cancer.”

The report also talks about a shortage of staff—32% of radiologists are expected to retire between 2015 and 2025.

My daughter developed a brain tumour—a common secondary effect of breast cancer—and she had to go for radiotherapy. It is truly traumatic. She used to see flashing blue and white lights; she had to wear a mask. The really upsetting thing was that because of staff shortages, she often had to lie around on a trolley waiting for things. Imagine what it is like laying on a hospital trolley with cancer in your bone and metastasis—it is just so distressing. That is the effect on patients of short staffing. It is just a phrase in a report, but that is what it really means.

Breast Cancer Now’s report states:

“We are also concerned about the lack of access to Clinical Nurse Specialists for secondary breast cancer patients: only 21% of organisations in England, Scotland and Wales report having one or more CNS dedicated to secondary breast cancer. We know that access to a CNS can make a big difference to the way people with cancer experience their care, providing patients with support and helping them manage their symptoms. This is especially important for patients—

those like my Lynsey—

“with incurable secondary breast cancer who have particularly complex needs.”

Finally, Breast Cancer Now also said:

“We have serious concerns about the future of the National Cancer Patient Experience Survey as a result of the introduction of a new opt-out model scheduled in May 2018. The CPES has been a key driver of the improvements in cancer patient outcomes and experience since 2010.”

It is the aspiration of Breast Cancer Now that by 2050, everybody who develops breast cancer will live. I used to say to my daughter, “I’ve had so much of my life, more than you. I wish it could be me.” She used to say, “Mum, I wish it could be no one.” As parliamentarians we have power to influence things and change them, so perhaps we can join together across the House and make Breast Cancer Now’s vision a reality, so that by 2050, nobody need die of breast cancer.