Commit to Beat Cancer: Support our Westminster lobby on 3rd November

Our Commit to Beat Cancer campaign has been running since the end of last year. The campaign asked MPs to commit to making UK cancer outcomes among the best in Europe in the next 10 years.

During the general election, we had a great response, with 1,034 Prospective Parliamentary Candidates signing the pledge. Of these, 260 are now MPs in Parliament, and pledged to support us after the election.

Now roughly 70 of our most dedicated campaigning supporters – our Cancer Campaign Ambassadors – are taking the next step in the campaign and descending on Westminster Palace to lobby their MP.

Our Campaigning Officer, Claire, explaining more about the day in this video:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfdUsax90c0]

You can see who’s coming along on our interactive map, and find out if your constituency is represented.

[googlemaps http://maps.google.co.uk/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=101297204825157603513.00048fe86b55dd4b7bb9f&source=embed&ll=53.186288,-1.779785&spn=6.322352,14.72168&output=embed&w=425&h=350]

If you live in England and want to join us at the lobby, please get in touch via our website or email [email protected]. We only have a few places left so please do get in contact as soon as possible.

We’re particularly keen to hear from people from a few key constituencies, so if you are from Witney in Oxfordshire, Tatton in Cheshire, or Doncaster North in Yorkshire, please get in touch and get involved.

About the day
Our Ambassadors will be joining some of our key members of staff, like our Chief Executive Harpal Kumar, who will also be having meetings with key politicians. In the evening we’ll be rounding events off with a parliamentary reception for MPs, members of the House of Lords, and other key people in health and science. This will give us another opportunity to talk about the campaign.

The Commit to Beat Cancer campaign has five pillars, all essential for creating the right environment to beat cancer:

• Prevent more cancers
• Detect cancer earlier
• Tackle cancer inequalities
• Provide world class treatments
• Protect the UK’s research base

This particular lobby is England-only, because health is devolved throughout the UK. The campaign as a whole is UK-focused and we’ll be rolling it out to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland ready for the elections next year – so watch this space.

Sophie Jones, Cancer Research UK Campaigning Manager