To mark World Cancer Day 2022, Stephen Metcalfe, MP for South Basildon & East Thurrock, is supporting Cathy Brokenshire’s campaign calling for a national lung cancer screening programme.
Cathy Brokenshire has launched a campaign with the Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation calling for a national screening programme for lung repository diseases, after her husband The Rt. Hon. James Brokenshire MP sadly passed away last year with lung cancer.
Stephen Metcalfe said: “Lung cancer is not just caused by smoking and my wonderful friend James called for better screening in April 2018 after his diagnosis. James was one of around 15% of people who are diagnosed with lung cancer without having ever smoked.
We currently have other national screening programmes for cervical, breast and bowel cancer and it is time that we had one for lung cancer.
In addition, with one in six people dying with lung cancer not being smokers we should be looking to increase the number of people who are screened.
To this end, the targeted lung health check service has been running across Thurrock, which has seen over 1,600 scans administered, is extremely welcome. I visited one of these mobile facilities in Tilbury in May 2021, where I saw just how important it is to detect cancer early on. The sooner we can treat cancer the better the outcomes for patients, therefore the more cases which are caught early the more lives we will save.
That is why I am calling for an increase in screening through a national lung screening programme.”
Further information: The Castle Point, Basildon And Thurrock Lung Cancer and Mesothelioma Support Group offer practical and emotional support for those affected by lung cancer, contact details can be found here: https://roycastle.org/
Additional local respiratory services in both Thurrock and Basildon can be found here: https://www.mse.nhs.uk/respiratory-medicine-services/
