Britain Against Cancer Conference

The annual Britain Against Cancer conference is a day that brings around 400 people together for the biggest day in the Parliamentary calendar focused on cancer. Yesterday our Head of Campaigns, Marie-Claire, headed to Westminster to talk all things ovarian cancer:    

“We are now two years into the Government’s five-year cancer strategy. While there has been some progress in a few of the strategy’s recommendations, for most of this year I’ve been worried that progress has been too slow. This is especially pertinent in Recommendation 36 which says all women diagnosed with ovarian cancer should be offered BRCA testing at diagnosis. Despite the strategy launching in 2015, we’ve still seen no real plan to make this a reality around the country. We know this costs lives. It was great to see the All Party Parliamentary Group on Cancer tackle this head on, publishing a report with a strong warning for the Government: the strategy risks failing to reach its aims by 2020 unless changes are made now.  

It’s so fantastic to see so many people come together all with the same goal. Patients, NHS professionals, cancer charities, pharmaceuticals, researchers and politicians, (and let’s not forget my personal favourites - the medical detection dogs), – we’re all on the same team to beat cancer. 

A highlight of the day was the Secretary of State for Health, Jeremy Hunt, announcing to the assembled attendees that our latest policy report 'Acting on BRCA: Breaking down barriers to save lives' was an excellent piece of work. We’ll keep working and shouting about all things ovarian cancer until we beat this disease together.”