Cancer Treatment

Kevin Foster Excerpts

Thursday 19th April 2018 Commons Chamber

[Kevin Foster (Torbay) (Con)]

It is a genuine pleasure to follow the quality of speech we have just heard from the hon. Member for Hove (Peter Kyle). He may not know it, but we are similar in both having lost our mothers to cancer.

My mother, Linda, was diagnosed with bowel cancer back in March 2011. By that point the cancer had spread to her liver and lungs. She had a couple more good years with us, but she had reached the point where, despite all the treatments, the cancer’s progress could not be stopped. She was very stoic in the face of it.

I was a councillor at the time, and my mother knew I had to take time away from my duties. I remember her saying from her hospital bed, “You do know you can tell people about it?” That was quite a decision for her, because she was usually quite a private person—she was always the person in our family who was not ill or unwell. She did not usually want to talk about her issues, but she was clear that I should talk and tell people about it: if people saw my position, I would get publicity and people would want to know why I was away. The idea that I was spending my weekend with my mum and my family is very different from the idea that I was helping my dad care for my mum when she had just come back from hospital.

All the way through, my mum was keen that her experience should be talked about, and she would be pleased that, even today, it is still being mentioned, because she wanted people who have a suspicion to go and get a test and to find out about it. It is better to find out than to worry and not do it.

My mum was 56 when her cancer was picked up in March 2011, and the irony is that my father had been 60 the year before and they had received the bowel cancer test kit for him in the September or October. He dutifully did what he needed to do with it in the bathroom and sent it back. Of course, it came back clear. Had my mother used the kit, it may well have been a very different scenario. The key thing that came out of it for me is that her tumour was located up, over and right the way back down in her bowel, so the more visible signs did not show. There would have been no blood in the toilet because the blood would have dissipated through her system. But a test would have picked it up, which is why it is so important to me that that message is heard, because people do sometimes think this might be embarrassing and find that when they read the instructions of what to do with the test it sounds a bit odd. There is nothing to worry about. People should not just use it because they are feeling ill; they should use it because it is there and it can tell them that there is something wrong.

The Minister spoke briefly to us before we came into the Chamber and I hope, given my family’s experience, that real consideration is being given to how the faecal immunochemical test can be expanded and, thus, help save more lives, particularly among the under-60s. The fact that this was started at 60—it was a good initiative, which has helped saved lives—almost sent a message of, “Well, when you’re 60 you might get this”, whereas plenty of people younger than that get it. Sadly, my mother passed away from bowel cancer at 59, before the age at which she would have got the test in the post in order to try to identify whether she had the illness.

My mother’s case highlighted one other thing, which we have seen in other cases: once a doctor has concerns, it is important that we can get the tests done quickly to identify exactly what is wrong. With my mother, it was unexplained anaemia and stomach pain that finally triggered the test to be done, but it can be all sorts of complaints. The hon. Member for Hove gave the example of something being wrong but we cannot quite pin down what. I know the ACE—accelerate, co-ordinate, evaluate—centres are being created, and I am interested to hear the Minister’s comments about how he thinks they can be expanded and developed. Where a GP has a concern with a patient—where something seems to be not quite right but they cannot put their finger on exactly what aspect of cancer it might be or whether it is cancer—we need the ability to get the tests done and a diagnosis made quickly, which then means treatment can start.

It is absolutely right to say that cancer is not the death sentence it once was and it is not taboo to talk about it, as it once was. The only thing my mum hated was when anyone called it “The big C”. She said, “Oh, for goodness’ sake, if you are calling it ‘The big C’ you might as well say what it is. What a load of nonsense!” That was her reaction; she wanted us to call it cancer, because that is what it is. She used to say, “Look, I’ve got bowel cancer. It is not bowel with the big C. It is bowel cancer.” That was very much her view. For some people, that description helps but for her it gave the idea of not being up front about what it is and this was about being able to get treatment. So I hope something good can come out of her experience.

Thankfully, more people are surviving cancer than used to be the case, but this sort of debate is so important. I say that, first, because it brings this up and it is about sharing personal experience. No one is immune from cancer. I know my family history and I know that in my mid-50s there are some tests I need to have. My mum was worried that I might have her genetic condition and so be more liable to get this, but I just said to her, “Well, if it is, the one thing we can guarantee is that I am going to be one of the monitored people in western Europe for that particular condition. Don’t be embarrassed about it, mum.” This was certainly an informative experience for me, and I do hope we can do more. I hope that the result of this debate is that more people can be helped and we can get the death rates down even further.