It's Time to Choose

By the end of 2016, one thousand people will be diagnosed with cancer every day. Most of those one thousand people will receive good, compassionate care from the NHS, but some won’t. Macmillan wants to make sure that everyone diagnosed with cancer is treated with dignity and respect, and has a consistent, positive care experience.

When my consultant told me I had cancer, she gave me the time to ask questions and made sure I knew I could contact the Macmillan Clinical Nurse Specialist at any time. I took up a lot of my consultant’s time that day but I never felt rushed. She listened to me and answered all my questions. And the Macmillan nurse was fantastic throughout my care – making me laugh, checking I understood what the consultant had told me, reassuring my family and friends.

I was fortunate. I want everyone who’s diagnosed with cancer to have a similar experience to me.

Time to Choose

That’s why I was keen to be involved in Time to Choose, Macmillan’s General Election campaign, and I took the opportunity to talk with MPs about why it’s important to get consistent and compassionate care for more of us.

The campaign has three themes:

• Choose living well
  • The chance of surviving cancer in the UK is far lower than in many parts of Europe, and too many people don’t get the help they need to live well once treatment has ended. Demand earlier diagnosis and better support after treatment.
• Choose dignity
  • Right now one in five people with cancer don’t feel treated as an individual and too many NHS staff don’t feel valued. Demand health services that protect the dignity of patients, while giving staff the support they need to do this.
• Choose a good death
  • A lack of support outside of hospital denies many people the chance to die in the place they want to. Demand the free social care people need to fulfil their wish to die at home if they choose.

Talking to MPs

As part of the Time to Choose campaign, I went to Westminster on 25 February for the launch of Macmillan’s report The People Behind Cancer Care. The report presents stories from patients and staff about a range of their experiences – at different points in their cancer journey. Some of the people featured in the report were also at Westminster to urge MPs to support Macmillan’s General Election campaign.

Jim Shannon MP, DUP spokesperson for health, speaks with people affected by cancer

We sat in small groups and, over the course of a couple of hours, met with about 30 MPs. We shared our stories and experiences of good and bad care, explained why everyone should have good, consistent, compassionate care, and discussed the report. We also talked about the National Cancer Patient Experience Survey, and how responses to the survey related to each MP’s constituency. This survey has taken place for the past four years and covers all 153 acute and specialist NHS Trusts in England that provide adult acute cancer services. The survey was sent to more than 118,000 NHS cancer patients and more than 70,000 of us responded.

Support Time to Choose

It’s important we let MPs know why cancer care needs to improve – so more of us have a better experience. Please help make cancer care a priority in the General Election in May. You can find out more about how to get involved in Time to Choose, and help the UK avoid a cancer care crisis.

Get involved

If, like me, you want to help Macmillan demand better outcomes for people affected by cancer, you can sign up to be an e-campaigner and keep up-to-date with Macmillan’s campaigns on the campaigns blog.