Cancer Campaigning Group urges Government to fulfil cancer reform pledges
25 February 2008

The Cancer Campaigning Group (CCG) – a coalition of the 40 leading cancer patient organisations in the UK, including Brain Tumour UK – is calling on the Government to fulfil its recent promises in the Cancer Reform Strategy (CRS).

Whilst the CCG supports and welcomes the CRS as a blueprint for the delivery of cancer services in England, CCG members remain to be convinced that the NHS will be able to deliver on the strategy’s promises within this timeframe and with the limited resources available.

The CCG has consulted its member charities and found a number of significant concerns from the members across many areas, including access to adequate funding for all aspects of services and research, effective commissioning and delivery at a local level. The CCG will continue to work with Government to ensure that these concerns are addressed. During the first year of the CRS, CCG will be monitoring certain priorities which will form the basis for eventual annual reporting. These priorities are:

• Overall implementation of the plan: The need for an effective implementation plan for the CRS with clear milestones for success by 2012.
• Specific project plans: Clear work plans for each of the new initiatives, such as Clinical Nurse Specialists, with clear objectives and timelines for delivery across all parts England.
• Effective commissioning: Clear steps towards ensuring effective commissioning by PCTs and Cancer Networks with evidence that these initial steps are proving effective.
• Funding: Sufficient funding to ensure access to all new treatments, areas of care, research and prevention strategies across England.
• Stakeholder engagement: Continued constructive engagement with the voluntary sector.

The CCG will host a series of workshops over the coming year that will address the four areas of prevention; treatment and care; information and support; and research. These workshops will involve CCG members, healthcare professionals, stakeholders, and other relevant organisations. Their primary function will be to inform the CCG’s annual reporting on the progress of the CRS.

Download the full Cancer Campaigning Group’s response

 

Macmillan Cancer Support and Cancerbackup announce merger proposal
11 January 2008

Macmillan Cancer Support and Cancerbackup are delighted to announce that they have agreed to merge.  The merger will further the aims of both charities to ensure that, across the UK, everyone affected by cancer will get faster and enhanced access to high-quality information at every stage of their cancer journey.

Both Macmillan and Cancerbackup are dedicated to supporting people affected by cancer.  Macmillan develops and provides a wide range of medical, practical, emotional and financial services, including the distribution of information. Cancerbackup is the specialist cancer information charity, recognised as the UK’s leading source of high-quality information on every cancer. More …

 

Major research agreement signed by universities
25 October 2007

The mother of a three-year-old boy who died from a brain tumour has praised the signing of a major agreement by universities to work together on ground-breaking research into the disease. The memorandum of agreement to advance research was signed at an International Brain Tumour Awareness Week event at the University of Wolverhampton .

Representatives from leading brain tumour charities were present at the event, including Brain Tumour UK , supported by Vanessa Voysey, from Bridgnorth. Vanessa's son, Mewen Dampure, was diagnosed with a brain tumour when he was only 10 months old. He was treated at the Birmingham Children's Hospital and the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital , but unfortunately the treatment was not successful, and he died in March this year, aged just three and a half years old.

Leading figures from the Manchester Metropolitan University , Keele University and the University Hospital of North Staffordshire NHS Trust signed the agreement on Thursday 25 October . The University of Wolverhampton , the University of Central Lancashire and Lancashire Teaching Hospital's NHS Foundation Trust are already members of the partnership, known as Brain Tumour North West.

Vanessa, a librarian at the University of Wolverhampton , said: “Brain Tumour North West is very important to me. The difficult thing for us was that although the doctors and nurses put a tremendous amount of work into trying to cure our son, they were limited by the number of treatments available.

“It would be thrilling for me to see a breakthrough in the drugs and treatment so a person in a similar situation to me would see more treatments available to them.”

Vanessa said Mewen had been a very determined and independent child, who never complained about the treatment he underwent and was always “cheerful, bright and lively”.

Professor John Darling, Director of the University of Wolverhampton 's Research Institute in Healthcare Science, said: “For the first time in the United Kingdom , brain tumour researchers are organising systems for developing big, important projects involving brain tumours which will impact on clinical treatment in the near future. All the researchers involved in Brain Tumour North West are very excited about the new research opportunities and how these will help patients.”

The group aims to advance research in the area by opening access to rare tumour material, sharing laboratory facilities and techniques, as well as pooling scientific, medical and statistical expertise.