Meeting your local politicians
Thursday 28 April 2022
To mark the final week of Bowel Cancer Awareness Month we headed on a whistle stop tour of UK Parliaments to give politicians an opportunity to find out more about the biggest challenges facing people affected by bowel cancer and offer solutions to help improve services and survival.
Thanks to almost 650 of you writing to invite your local politicians, we were delighted to have 88 of them attend our drop-in events in the Senedd, Westminster and Holyrood, and have some really meaningful discussions with decision makers across the UK. Unfortunately, due to restrictions ahead of the upcoming General Election, we were unable to hold an event in Northern Ireland.
What we wanted to achieve
We wanted to use these events to build and strengthen our relationships with politicians who hold the power to influence health legislation and policy. We used our discussions to educate politicians on the unique challenges faced by those affected by bowel cancer, as well as offer solutions to help improve early diagnosis and access to best treatment and care to ultimately increase survival rates for patients.
In Wales, England and Scotland in 2018 fewer than 40% of people were diagnosed at the earliest stages (stage 1 and 2). This has to change. We shared your stories of being diagnosed and accessing treatment and services for bowel cancer in conversations with key decision makers in the three Parliaments to help them understand the need to act.
Action is needed on all fronts if we want to be better at diagnosing the disease sooner. By working with your politicians, we can help change the future for bowel cancer patients by diagnosing the disease earlier, when it's much easier to treat.
Meeting Members of the Senedd (MSs) in the Senedd, Cardiff
On Tuesday, we met with 18 MSs in the Senedd at our event, hosted by Rhun ap Iorwerth MS, Shadow Spokesperson for Health and Social Care. We raised with MSs that Wales will soon be the only UK nation without a long-term cancer plan that includes specific initiatives and commitments to improve cancer survival. We received a positive response to our call with a number of MSs agreeing to press for a new plan in Parliament.
Meeting Members of Parliament (MPs) in Westminster, London
On Wednesday, we met with over 50 MPs in Westminster at our event hosted by Ben Lake MP, Shadow Spokesperson for Health and Social Care. The Department of Health and Social Care recently announced the development of a new 10-year Cancer Plan so our event was the perfect opportunity to raise with MPs what the plan needs to include to deliver world class outcomes for bowel cancer patients. MPs across the political spectrum have agreed to work with us to champion early diagnosis in Parliament and raise the need for long term workforce planning to address the capacity crisis in the cancer workforce.
Meeting Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) in Holyrood, Edinburgh
On Thursday, we met with 15 MSPs in Holyrood at our event hosted by Jackie Baillie MSP, Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care. We're pleased that Scotland has also announced the development of a new long-term Cancer Strategy and took the opportunity to highlight what needs to be done in Scotland to improve outcomes for patients. We’ll be working with MSPs to share the Cancer Plan consultation with constituents in Scotland so people affected by bowel cancer can input their views.
Across our three events we spoke with the Minister for Public Health in Scotland, various shadow health spokes people, chairs of health select committees and members of influential health groups in Parliament, as well as politicians who had a personal connection the disease. These are the people who hold the power to make change happen in Parliament, so we're pleased they attended our events.
Thanks to our amazing campaigners who helped us by inviting their local politicians to our events. Politicians at each event told us that they were asked to come by their constituents, which really shows the difference you can make.
What next?
We have provided all attendees of the events with more details on our priority policy areas that they can help influence. We hope to continue to build on these relationships and work together with politicians to improve early diagnosis and change the future for people affected by bowel cancer in each nation of the UK.
Northern Ireland update
In March, the long awaited new 10-year Cancer Strategy was published. We worked closely with the Department of Health to develop this strategy and ensure the issues facing bowel cancer patients were included. You can find out about our work in Northern Ireland here.
-
Find out more about our latest campaigns
-
Find out more about our work across the UK
-
Become a campaigner. Join #teambowelcancer and help save lives