Steve Brine is backing Breast Cancer Care on the eve of Secondary Breast Cancer Awareness Day, on Saturday 13th October.
The Winchester & Chandler's Ford MP, who is co-chair of the All Party Breast Cancer Group, has also joined in a 'twobby', a Twitter lobby of Parliament, to help raise awareness of Secondary breast cancer, also known as also known as metastatic or advanced cancer.
This occurs when breast cancer cells spread from the first (primary) tumour in the breast through the lymphatic or blood system to other parts of the body. A diagnosis of metastatic breast cancer means that the cancer cannot be cured, although it can be controlled, sometimes for years.
Breast Cancer Care works directly with people to improve the experiences of people living with secondary breast cancer. They have developed standards of care for people with secondary breast cancer with the help of healthcare professionals and people living with secondary breast cancer and they are asking cancer networks to sign up to these. These standards set out 10 key components of high-quality care that people with secondary breast cancer should receive, especially adequate data collection on the incidence of secondary breast cancer, specialist nurses for people with secondary breast cancer, and access to palliative care professionals with expertise in symptom control, including pain management and cancer-related fatigue.
They have also created a series of short films and a booklet to show 'a day in the life' of someone living with advanced disease, which you can read about here.
Steve said: "Nearly all deaths from breast cancer in this country are sadly due to secondaries so it is very much here we need to focus our energies. Through the All-Party Group we have been to see the Prime Minister in No.10 about this angle of the fight against breast cancer and agreed some really excellent new ways to measure the statistics because that is crucial. For me it has always been about world-class digital screening, these catching cancers early and treating them before metastasis can form and spread.
"Breast Cancer Care do so much and I especially back their campaign for more specialist nurses for people with secondary breast cancer. At last count there were only a handful to cover the entire country which is clearly not good enough."
Pictured; Steve joins a fellow co-chair of the All Party Breast Cancer Group, Annette Brooke MP
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