Following a personal invitation from Dame Caroline Dinenage MP, our CEO, Dr Jen Kelly attended the first-ever taskforce for childhood cancer in parliamentary history. The newly formed group will fight together to improve outcomes nationally for children and young adults.
With 1 child in every 450 being diagnosed with cancer before the age of 15, action needs to begin now to help improve outcomes for children and their families of the future. Despite now being the number 1 disease cause of death in children in the UK, young adults and children are often diagnosed at a later stage, often when the cancer has already spread. This means that they then face more aggressive treatments with lower chances of survival.
Dr Jen Kelly presented 4 key asks at the working group last Friday which, if backed by Government, will increase earlier diagnosis alongside more hopeful outcomes for individuals affected by the devastating disease.Â
Our 4 key asks included:
- Printing of our signs and symptoms awareness cards in all personal child health records (infant red books) nationally as standard. (currently they are in around 350,000 of the 700,000 printed each year)
- Creation of a public health campaign for the signs and symptoms of childhood cancer
- Improve Education for health professionals in identifying signs and symptoms of childhood cancer
- Reduced barriers between primary and secondary care.  (this means easier referral from general practice into hospitals to the specialists that need to see the child – currently there are so many delays that can happen before diagnosis)
All 4 asks from our proposal are now agreed action points for a follow up meeting which will be scheduled in due course. Members of the taskforce now eagerly await the second working group, which should be the next step towards action and support from the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England.
The taskforce meeting was led by Dame Caroline Dinenage, who was joined by clinicians, charities, and MPs from across the UK, all who hope to help save innocent, young lives as a collective and aligned force. Â
It was an honour to be able to join the first-ever Detection and Diagnosis working group for childhood cancer at the Department of Health and Social Care in Westminster.
The aim of this working group is for professionals and organisations to collaborate with the one common aim of improving survival rates and the quality of life of children and young people with cancer.
Thank you to Dame Caroline Dinenage and Charlotte Fairall from Sophie’s Legacy for tireless work in making this happen. When we work together, we can achieve so much for children with cancer.
Dr Jen Kelly, GP, and CEO Grace Kelly Childhood Cancer Trust
I’m so proud that we have managed to get the Government to set up the first children and young people’s cancer taskforce. It has been a lot of work to get it this far, but I’m determined to change the outcomes for children with cancer.
Charlotte Fairall, Founder, and CEO Sophie’s Legacy
Until further action is taken by Government, the Grace Kelly Childhood Cancer Trust will continue to raise awareness through the distribution of our signs and symptoms cards alongside our newly released awareness film which can be viewed and shared here:
Because the children of today all deserve a tomorrow.
For more information or interview requests please contact Sophie Blount, Communications Officer at sophieblount@gkcct.org by calling 01905 885777.
