Six months ago the six-time Olympic gold medallist Sir Chris Hoy shocked us all by announcing he has terminal prostate cancer. His bravery and candour in talking so openly about the diagnosis nobody wants to hear are as inspiring as his achievements in the Velodrome.
I am so grateful to the courage shown by Sir Chris and every man who’s stepped up to speak out. Having been through kidney cancer myself, I know how difficult it can be to say those words out loud.
I also want to thank the Mail for its important campaign to raise awareness about prostate cancer. The UK National Screening Committee is thoroughly examining all the evidence for prostate cancer screening programmes, including targeted approaches for those at higher risk.
I hope they can recommend a way forward that allows the NHS to seek out prostate cancer more proactively for those most at risk, but any programme must be evidence led and clinically led.
Regardless of the outcome of the review later this year, there’s no doubt that the big change needed in the NHS is to move from a service that delivers late diagnosis, and therefore less effective and more expensive treatment, to one that diagnoses earlier and treats faster.
There’s plenty we can be doing now to start turning the tide on prostate cancer.
After the election, I said that the NHS is broken. Nowhere is that clearer than in cancer care, where delays are costing lives. My constituent and friend Nathaniel Dye waited more than 100 days to start treatment, during which time his cancer became incurable. I feel the weight on my shoulders every day to deliver for Nathaniel so that the NHS is there for patients like him much earlier in the future.
Sir Chris Hoy, who has spoken with candour about his terminal prostate cancer diagnosis, with his wife Sarra Kemp
Health Secretary Wes Streeting has backed the Mail’s campaign for proactive prostate cancer screening
Through a combination of investment and reform in the Government’s Plan for Change, we will fix our health service and make it fit for the future. We’ve hit the ground running, delivering an extra two million elective appointments – seven months earlier than we promised in our manifesto – and reducing waiting lists by more than 193,000.
Behind these numbers are patients who we’re helping beat the odds with quick referrals, speedy diagnosis and rapid treatment. Some 80,000 suspected cancer patients have been diagnosed earlier this year compared to last.
None of this would have been possible if we hadn’t ended damaging strikes and put resident doctors back on the front line, rather than the picket line, allowing operations and consultations to continue.
We’re also working round the clock by opening community diagnostic centres and surgical hubs into the evenings and on weekends. Cancer doesn’t clock off at 5pm on a Friday, so healthcare shouldn’t either.
We’re also ensuring we’re making the most of the latest, cutting-edge technology, along with investing in trials, including £16million with Prostate Cancer UK to find a better way of catching the disease.
In the long run, it is the radical reshaping and modernisation of the NHS that will deliver the goods. Through our Ten-Year Health Plan, we’ll bring our NHS into the 21st century by harnessing the revolution in genomics and data. Healthcare will become more personal, more predictive and more preventative.
It will allow us to judge patients’ risk of diseases like cancer and provide them with personal care accordingly, to catch cancer earlier and treat it faster. And it will save countless families the trauma of losing their sons, brothers, husbands and fathers to this cruel disease.
