Plan aims to end cancer care ‘postcode lottery’

A GOVERNMENT minister has pledged the Government will end what he called a “postcode lottery” when it comes to cancer care.

- SAM VOLPE Health Reporter

“If you're a fisherman in North Shields or a financier in Canary Wharf in London, you should have an equal shot at a cure and at survival from cancer,” said health minister Zubir Ahmed who visited the North Shields Fish Quay yesterday.

The minister - an MP in Glasgow and a transplant surgeon - was speaking ahead of the release of a new National Cancer Plan set for the coming weeks.

Dr Ahmed met members of the North Sea fishing fleet and heard about the C-Aware programme that has run thanks to Macmillan Cancer Support and the Fishermen’s Mission for the last two years.

Ahead of the new plan’s publication, he and his boss, Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting, pledged to do more to help tackle disparities that unfairly hit cancer care in rural and coastal areas.

Dr Ahmed said it had been a “really inspiring visit” and praised the “phenomenal” work of the C-Aware programme, which has more than 50 cancer “champions” and has seen two years of successful work to raises awareness of illness.