Clive Jones

I beg to move, That this House has considered the potential merits of a cancer strategy for England. It is an honour to serve under your guidance this afternoon, Mr Betts. This debate is significant to me for many reasons. When I was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2008, it came as a massive shock to me and my family. Questions whirled around in a haze of uncertainty: “Is it serious? What happens next? What does the future look like? What treatment will I have?” Some people think, “Am I going to die?”, and, sadly, far too many do. Cancer is an evil that takes your life completely out of your own hands. The hardest thing I had to do was to tell my two daughters about my diagnosis. They were 13 and 14. It was a very emotional time. Was our family of four about to become a family of three? Because of the delay in diagnosis, my cancer spread. I had surgery twice, chemotherapy and radiotherapy. I was one of the lucky ones who survived. Looking back on my personal experience of the NHS, I can only be grateful and thankful for the service I received. Our NHS consultants, oncologists, radiologists, radiographers, histopathologists and specialist nurses work with diligence and dedication to provide their patients with the best possible care. Yet it is hard not to reflect that being diagnosed in 2008 was in one respect a blessing, because cancer care in 2024 is simply not working. Lord Darzi’s independent investigation of the NHS in England plainly said: “The National Health Service is in serious trouble.” It did not surprise me to read his report calling out the failings in cancer care. I felt genuine anger when he highlighted that some of our services are lagging behind those of other countries. As a stark reminder, the UK has higher cancer mortality rates than any comparable country. One patient in three waits longer than 31 days for radical radiotherapy. The national target to start treatment within 62 days of an urgent referral has never been met since 2015. The Conservative party should be ashamed of those statistics. In my constituency of Wokingham, most cancer care is delivered at the Royal Berkshire hospital, and I am thankful that we have fantastic people working there. I am sure Ministers in the Department of Health and Social Care are sick of me saying this, but that hospital urgently needs a rebuild. The consequences of delay, disrepair and degradation put patients on the frontline of risk to their health, and they see at first hand the consequences of failing to invest in the future. That is especially clear in cancer care. Some of the Royal Berkshire cancer treatment is performed in buildings that were built when Viscount Melbourne was Prime Minister: in 1839. A broken estate is one of many issues stopping cancer standards from being met and is putting patients at risk. Across the country, the target of 85% of patients starting their first definitive treatment within 62 days of referral is not being met. The statistics are shocking. These are people with families and friends. They deserve better.