In July, we held an event in Parliament to launch our #MoreTimeToLive campaign. This campaign calls on the government to urgently change the system for deciding which drugs are made available on the NHS in England, so that everyone with secondary breast cancer can access the drugs they need to stay alive.
In this section
This follows the publication of our new report, Setting the Bar Too High. Right now, some people can’t get access to drugs because their condition isn’t considered severe enough, despite having only months to live.
What's the problem?
NICE (the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence) is the organisation that decides whether drugs can be made available on the NHS. To work out how much money to spend on different treatments, they rate conditions by how severe they are. The more severe the condition, the more the NHS can spend on drugs to treat it.
But NICE has set the bar for severity too high. NICE need to lower the bar for what counts as a very severe condition, so that the NHS can spend more money on drugs to treat them. But first, the government needs to remove any restrictions that could stop them doing this.
We’re inviting supporters to ask their MP to help by writing to the health secretary, asking him to change the system. Because people with secondary breast cancer deserve access to treatments which can give them #MoreTimeToLive.
And while this system specifically effects the NHS in England, these decisions are usually adopted in Wales and Northern Ireland - so fixing the system matters here too.
A powerful day in Parliament
On 2 July, we held an event in parliament to introduce our campaign to politicians. MPs and Peers were able to drop in and get a copy of the report, and speak to us about what needs to change and how they can support.
We were also joined by 3 of our incredible supporters living with secondary breast cancer - Laura Price, Lee Daniel and Kathryn Hulland. They generously donated their time to speak to MPs about their own experiences, and why the system urgently needs to change.
Together we spoke to MPs and peers about how the current process is failing people with secondary breast cancer and asked them to raise the issue in parliament. We also asked them to write to the secretary of state for health and social care directly.
We had a great turnout with over 70 MPs from across the UK joining us, including Ed Argar, then shadow secretary of state for health and social care. MPs from the health and social care committee also joined, and agreed to take action to support the campaign.
Inside parliament, I looked around at 70 MPs - many of whom shared their own connections to breast cancer. And I told them this is a crisis. Each day, 31 people die from advanced breast cancer. And many of those deaths are preventable - if only our system allowed access to treatments that already exist. I asked them to be bold. Ambitious. To look at best practices around the world. And above all - to be humane. To make sure people like me across the country aren’t forgotten or failed.
Lee Daniel
Campaigner living with secondary breast cancer
We couldn’t have put it better!
If you’d like to find out more about #MoreTimeToLive campaign, you can catch the latest episode of our podcast. Sophie Blake, who is living with secondary breast cancer, and Eleanor Pearce Willis from Breast Cancer Now, discuss the issues with the drug approval system in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and the work we're doing to help change things.
What's next
We’ve been busy following up with all MPs and peers who attended our event. We've also been sharing the report and ways to support the campaign with those who didn’t attend.
We’re also asking supporters to email their MP, asking them to write to Wes Streeting. As of the time of this post, we have had almost 4,000 supporters write to their MP, and so far, just over 100 MPs have written to the secretary of state for health and social care.
You can help too, by emailing your own MP. It only takes around a minute to complete, but can make a big difference. The more MPs who contact the health secretary, the more pressure we can put on him to act. Your email could make all the difference.
We’ll be continuing conversations with MPs and campaigning for change, because people with secondary breast cancer deserve access to life-extending treatments. And they deserve it now.
Take action today
You can support the #MoreTimeToLive campaign by emailing your MP. Your action can help us put pressure on the government to act now.