Why the NHS must now back our key cancer campaign

FROM still being awake at 3am due to thinking about my impending death, to wondering whether nausea will ruin my plans to put the rubbish in the bins outside my flat anyone who knows me knows I'm always up for a good time.

- Robert Fisk

So, as a modern-day thrill-seeker, it won't come as a big surprise that I attended my hospital's annual general meeting last week. I say “my hospital” but actually mean the one where I'm being treated for incurable bowel cancer.

It belongs to the NHS and so belongs to everyone. I don’t own a hospital, obviously.

During the meeting, I learned that the hospital trust is doing some amazing research into preventing cancer.

Hopefully, they will let me write some articles about it in the future because, in the so-called world-leading hospital, it is world-leading research. I also learned that part of the battle of the Daily Express's Cancer Care campaign will be to ensure hospital chiefs actually understand what mental health care is. To recap, we want cancer patients to receive mental health support both during and after treatment. It is rarely offered at present and, when it is, it often isn’t good enough.

WHEN I was diagnosed with bowel cancer in June 2023 aged 43, I was told counselling was available via Macmillan Cancer Support, but was warned the waiting list was around 18 months. This made me wonder if I’d be dead before I got to the top of the list.