Mark Pawsey attends lobby in Westminster
Over 100 other patients, carers, charities and healthcare professionals took part in a mass lobby of Parliament on Wednesday to ask local MPs, including Rugby MP Mark Pawsey, to help raise awareness about brain tumours in Rugby and to use his position in Parliament to get the Government to do more in the fight against brain tumours.
Mark Pawsey was happy to sign the pledge to ensure that brain tumour care is given a higher priority. More needs to be done because few people realise that:
• Brain tumours kill more children and more people under 40 than any other cancer;
• Brain tumours reduce life expectancy by over 20 years on average - more than breast, colon, lung, prostrate, cervix, ovary, melanoma, leukaemia, Non Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, kidney, pancreas, oesophagus, stomach, uterus, myeloma, and bladder cancers.
• 8,600 primary brain tumours are registered in the UK every year, but many go unrecorded. Research by the brain tumour charities suggest the true figure is closer to 16,000 and that 32,000 people develop secondary brain tumours in the UK every year which go unrecorded.
Unlike many other cancers survival rates for brain tumours have not significantly improved in the UK for over 40 years and despite the prevalence and high mortality of brain tumours the issue is not currently given the resources or focus they deserve for example:
• Brain Tumours receive just 0.7% of funds allocated to cancer research;
• Diagnosis of brain tumours is often delayed with the median time from onset of symptoms to diagnosis being 3.3 months in the UK, compared to 5 weeks in comparable countries like Poland and the US.
Mark said:
“I support the efforts made by the Brain Tumour Consortium to ensure that existing medical guidelines should be followed to ensure early diagnosis and treatment for everyone affected by a brain tumour. I was alerted to today’s lobby by a Constituent whose life has been affected by this disease, and I have had personal experience, having lost a friend some years ago.”
Mark continued:
“ I agree that all those diagnosed with a brain tumour should receive a consistently high standard of treatment and care throughout the UK, and that there should be a significantly enhanced national programme of brain tumour research which reflects the number of people affected by Brain Tumours.”
Mark concluded:
“A better understanding of the severity and incidence of brain tumours should lead to Government resources being allocated to improve diagnosis and treatment, and I hope that today’s lobby will improve awareness.”