Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to raise awareness during Teenage and Young Adult Cancer Awareness Month of the signs and symptoms of cancer in April 2025.

NHS England and other National Health Service organisations, nationally and locally, publish information on the signs and symptoms of many different types of cancer, including those that are most common in teenagers and young adults. Further information on cancer signs and symptoms is available on the NHS.UK website.

The Department is committed to improving outcomes for teenagers and young adults with cancer. That’s why we have relaunched the Children and Young People Cancer Taskforce. The taskforce will explore opportunities for improvement in England, including detection and diagnosis, genomic testing and treatment, research and innovation, and patient experience. The taskforce will ensure that the unique needs of children and young people, including teenagers with cancer, are carefully considered as part of the National Cancer Plan for England, due to be published later this year.

As part of this work, the Department is committed to directly engaging with patients and their families to discuss their experiences. We are working with taskforce members to assemble a Patient Experience Panel, made up of young people with lived experience of cancer and their families, which will feed directly into the work of the taskforce.