On 8 September, Ms. Saxby was one of over 200 Members of Parliament who came together to support Macmillan Cancer Support’s latest campaign. The charity used its well loved World’s Biggest Coffee Morning reception in Parliament to launch a new report “Cancer Nursing on the line”.
The report calls for a Cancer Nurse Fund to invest in training the next generation of cancer nurses, whose numbers need to double by 2030 to ensure that people living with cancer get the support they need. At the event, Ms. Saxby spoke with Macmillan professionals and heard about the concerns of people living with cancer.
It is clear that specialist cancer nurses do an invaluable job in supporting people through their illness, from diagnosis, to treatment, and beyond. But Macmillan’s report highlights that the cancer nurse crisis has now left more than half a million people with cancer in the UK with a lack of support.
This can have serious implications, with almost half of all people (44%) who were diagnosed with cancer in the last two years lacking support and experience at least one potentially serious medical implication as a result, such as ending up in A&E, not knowing if they were talking their medication correctly, or not knowing what side effects to look out for.
If you or a loved one has been impacted by cancer, Ms. Saxby would welcome hearing their experiences of living with cancer, the impact a diagnosis has had and how she might be able to help.
Commenting, Selaine Saxby MP for North Devon said:
“As the NHS recovers for the impacts of the Covid pandemic, we must build back better. A shortage of nurses is impacting how we care for cancer patients in North Devon, and so we must increase the number of those in our specialist cancer nurse workforce.
“It was great to support existing specialist cancer nurses at Macmillan’s World’s Biggest Coffee Morning reception in Parliament on the launch of their report. We all owe a debt of gratitude to those working so hard to help treat those suffering from cancer.”