John Baron MP meets constituent at Target Ovarian Cancer Parliamentary reception

John with Julia Buckley and Nora Cullen at the reception

MP stresses importance of early diagnosis

John Baron MP attended the Target Ovarian Cancer Parliamentary reception this week and met with Billericay resident Julia Buckley. They chatted about the need to raise awareness of the symptoms of ovarian cancer – which is one of the more difficult cancers to detect early. John updated Julia on the work of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Cancer, of which he is Chairman, in pressing the NHS to diagnose cancers earlier.

John said:

“If we brought our survival rates up to the European average, we would save an extra 5,000 lives a year in the UK. The secret to achieving this is earlier diagnosis. It is a scandal that a quarter of all cancers are only detected at A&E when it is often too late.”

“Late diagnosis results in poor survival rates. This is why our Parliamentary Cancer Group is pushing for one in five year survival rates to be highlighted at all levels of the NHS to identify which local areas are underperforming and therefore need to do better at earlier diagnosis.”

Julia said:

“Too many women’s lives are lost in the UK to ovarian cancer. Target Ovarian Cancer organised this Parliamentary reception at the House of Commons so that I could meet my MP. There’s much that can be improved now.”