This petition has now been superseded by a campaign called Dying for a Cure, linked to its own petition.  Please visit the Dying for a Cure website for more information: Dying for a Cure

Please help us to urge the Government to do more for cancer (#domoreforcancer).

Over 2.5 million people in the UK are now living with cancer and it is the number one fear of the UK public.  While the Conservative/Lib Dem Government made some progress in advancing cancer care, its strategy was to focus only on small incremental improvements in prevention, diagnosis and treatment, with a mediocre target of bringing the UK up to the average 5-year survival rates for Europe; an improvement of just 3% after 5 years.  Meanwhile the number of people living with cancer is growing at a rate of 20% over the same timespan.

There will be no prospect of a breakthrough in the battle against cancer while our aim is to do no better than other countries are already doing.  And while we focus on catching up with the rest of Europe, other countries will have invested more, set more ambitious targets and forged even further ahead of the UK than they already were. 

My wife has been battling ovarian cancer for the last two and half years (www.MidLifeCancerCrisis.com) and like millions of others before us, our lives have been taken over by this dreadful disease.  We have been forced to accept a punishing treatment schedule with systemically damaging side-effects and virtually no prospect of a cure, in order to secure what little extra time together we can.

Cancer patients deserve better and we want to encourage the Government to do more.  We have written a letter to all the main political party leaders, urging them to set more ambitious targets, to be bolder in tackling the barriers to progress and to give cancer a much higher priority.  In an attempt to offer constructive suggestions, we have sent them a copy of an article that I've written entitled “Cancer – Where are we going wrong?”, which offers a carer’s perspective on cancer care in the UK and where we feel our management of cancer is sub-optimal and could be improved (also featured in an article on Huffington Post).

If you agree with us that the Government should be aiming higher and setting bolder targets for improving cancer care, please support this petition to urge the Government to do more for cancer (#domoreforcancer).