Rare Cancers Bill

Shaun Davies Excerpts

Friday 14th March 2025 Commons Chamber

[Shaun Davies (Telford) (Lab)]

I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Edinburgh South West (Dr Arthur) for introducing the Bill. He has channelled his personal experience, and that of his family, to produce a vital piece of legislation. I hope that he succeeds in driving change on this issue. He certainly has my support and that of all Members of the House. It is on days like this that I call Members of Parliament from across the House my hon. Friends rather than hon. Members. This cause certainly unites us.

I know from reading emails from my Telford constituents that they are fully behind the Bill. I join my hon. Friends in paying tribute to the many people who have told the stories of loved ones in their families and communities—they are far braver than I. Next Thursday, I will be a bearer at the funeral of a woman who is very special in my life. I am not quite brave enough to tell her story today, but maybe one day I will.

I have heard about devastating impacts from a number of constituents who have contacted me to share their stories. I heard from one constituent about the mother of his three teenage children. She is in her 40s and battling terminal pancreatic cancer after a late diagnosis. Among those stories, a familiar theme arises: conditions such as pancreatic cancer are being diagnosed too late and there is no available treatment. My constituents’ loved ones are given just months to live.

I focus on pancreatic cancer because it is an example of the scandal of rare cancer treatment. It is classed as a rare cancer by the Bill because it affects fewer than one person in every 2,000. Every year, one in every 6,000 people are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and half of them die within three months. There are roughly 107,000 people in Telford, which means that 18 of my constituents will be diagnosed with that awful cancer each and every year, and nine of them will die within three months of diagnosis. That is absolutely shocking. I owe it to those 18 people in my constituency to speak up in the Chamber and demand drastic change.

It is easy to see how this problem can arise, although that does not make it any less galling. In a healthcare system under strain that is failing cancer patients in particular—last year, UK cancer survival rates were 25 years behind some other European countries—decision-makers might be faced with a Sophie’s choice: the unenviable task of prioritising cancer treatments. When resources are scarce, the treatments that will save the most people are prioritised, but that is no consolation to the 47% of patients in the UK whose cancers are rare and less common.

An even more damning statistic is that sufferers of rare and less common cancers make up the majority of cancer deaths, as we have heard—55%. Clearly, that is not sustainable, fair or just. We cannot let a single cancer patient slip through the cracks in our healthcare service, let alone 90,000 people each and every year. All too often, people in my constituency and across the country will, as we have heard, rally around to raise money for their loved ones—their children—to receive treatment. On one level, that is amazing to see, but on another, it is depressing that that has to be done in order for people to access lifesaving treatment.

The Bill is about acknowledging that we can do better. The treatment of rare cancer patients is a scandal—not in the sense that any one individual is liable or culpable, but because the system as a whole has let tens of thousands of cancer patients down. To the healthcare and research sectors, we say, “You must do better, we want you to do better, and we will work alongside you to do better.” The Bill is a welcome first step in doing that. I urge the Government to be bold. This cohort of Members of Parliament and Ministers can do a lot on this agenda. We talk a lot in this place about hope and change. Well, goodness me—what better example is there than this Bill of providing hope and change to millions of people across our country? Let’s make cancer history.

National Cancer Plan

Shaun Davies Excerpts

Tuesday 4th February 2025 Commons Chamber

[Andrew Gwynne]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for the work that he did in this area in a previous guise. I am more than happy to meet him and Mike Nesbitt, with whom I had a meeting on drug strategy and drugs as a public health issue before this statement, to drive forward how we can improve outcomes in Northern Ireland and get that plan working again, as it should never have stalled.

[Shaun Davies (Telford) (Lab)]

People talk about the politics of hope and, goodness me, this statement can give the country some hope that cancer survival rates will be driven up. However, the Shrewsbury and Telford hospital NHS trust has remained challenged over the last 14 years. Will my hon. Friend the Minister confirm that the areas that are most challenged will be given support to catch up and push on?

[Andrew Gwynne]

My hon. Friend makes a really important point, which is not lost on those of us on the Government Front Bench. There are real challenges across the healthcare system, and some of the areas with some of the worst outcomes also happen to have some of the worst health inequalities. Those issues are exacerbated by the pressure on the healthcare system. He can have my reassurance that the Government will make it a priority to drive down health inequalities and ensure that healthcare systems get the support they need.

Government Policy on Health

Shaun Davies Excerpts

Monday 9th September 2024 Commons Chamber

[Wes Streeting]

Yes.

[Shaun Davies (Telford) (Lab)]

Fixing and getting our NHS back on its feet should be a national mission, and everybody should be able to play their part in that. Will the Secretary of State confirm whether any former Conservative Ministers have put themselves forward to try to fix the mess that the party now in opposition created over the last 14 years?

[Wes Streeting]

This is the extraordinary thing: notwithstanding the public job application of a former Conservative Secretary of State, which did not meet the bar, I have been approached by former Ministers in the Department of Health and Social Care who served in the Conservative Government who, in a spirit of public service, have wanted either to do work for the Labour Government on issues that they care about, or have sought to share their experiences—the highs or, indeed, the many lows—of being in government. That is a totally legitimate thing to do. I suspect that, if I rang round all my Labour predecessors, I would find that the Conservative Government tried desperately hard to get them to work for them, because, as I say, the challenge for Conservative Health Secretaries was that they did not have any successful Conservative predecessors to turn to.

Oral Answers to Questions

Shaun Davies Excerpts

Tuesday 23rd July 2024 Commons Chamber

[Karin Smyth]

I thank the right hon. Lady because she again makes for us the excellent point about what has happened in the last 14 years under her Government: these situations have been allowed to get so much worse both in Essex and across the country. She should also welcome our mission to rebuild the broken front door to the NHS and have more neighbourhood services based in communities, bringing those services together where patients are; that is absolutely what we all want and I am very happy to discuss this with her.

[Shaun Davies (Telford) (Lab)]

For 14 years the community in Telford and I have worked hard to safeguard our A&E, but the last Conservative Government made Telford the largest town without a fully functioning A&E. Will the Health team meet me and other Shropshire MPs to discuss this discredited and disgraceful decision?

[Karin Smyth]

I welcome my hon. Friend to his place. He knows what we all know, and what we know the entire country knows because we spent the past six weeks campaigning: it is the same story across the country. That is why we are committed to restoring standards and why we will fix this broken NHS, and of course I am happy to meet with him.