Commit to Beat Cancer – keeping cancer on the political agenda

Although the precise date is still up in the air, there will definitely be a general election before June 3rd.

So we thought you might like to know what we’re doing to make sure cancer stays high on the political agenda.

What can the next Government do?

Every year, our understanding of cancer grows and exciting new treatments are developed. Patient outcomes – how they respond to treatment – continue to improve.

But there’s still a long way to go.

If we can get the next Government to commit to beat cancer, they could help make cancer outcomes in the UK among the best in Europe in the next ten years. To do this, we need the next government to take action to:

• Detect cancer earlier
• Provide world-class cancer treatment
• Prevent more cancers
• Tackle cancer inequalities
• and Protect the UK’s research base.

We’ll be digging deeper into each of these in future blog posts.

What have we done so far?

It always helps to get across to each political party what we’d like them to take action on if they are lucky enough to become the next Government. To this end we have produced our own manifesto for the election which we’ve shared with MPs and prospective parliamentary candidates from all the major parties.

We’re now closely monitoring the policies that each party comes up with and comparing them to what we think. We will respond to the parties’ draft and final manifestos as they are published.

We’ve also produced a handy guide to help parliamentary candidates as they campaign in their local areas. The guide, ‘How to campaign with confidence about cancer’, gives candidates an introduction to what cancer is and how they can find out more.

Before Christmas we launched our Commit to Beat Cancer campaign which calls on the next government to make the UK’s cancer outcomes among the best in Europe in the next ten years. The campaign also asks our supporters to contact their local prospective parliamentary candidates asking them to sign up to our ‘Cancer Commitment’. The commitment contains the same policy calls that appear in our manifesto.

Thousands of our supporters have emailed their candidates. Already over 400 candidates across the country have signed up and we’ve sent them a wallet-sized commitment card so that they can show their support for the campaign.

If you’d like to ask your candidates to sign up, you can find out how here.

Why will this make a difference?

It’s important that we get candidates to commit now, so we have a relationship with them before they become MPs. In the past it has been vital to have champions in Parliament who can drive our issues forward. This has proved invaluable recently with our sunbeds campaigning.

Ultimately, only with the support of future MPs and the Government will our vision that the UK’s cancer outcomes will be among the best in Europe in the next ten years be realised.

Jon

More on this blog:

• Emma Greenwood on Protect
• Heather Walker on Tackle
• Hilary Tovey on Provide
• Helen Haggart on Prevent