North East Herts MP Oliver Heald met constituent, Sally Burton, at Breakthrough Breast Cancer’s 13th annual Westminster Fly-In event to support the charity’s call to save lives through increasing awareness, promoting early diagnosis and providing access to treatment.
Sally Burton is part of Breakthrough Breast Cancer’s Campaign and Advocacy Network and arranged to meet Oliver at the charity’s annual lobbying event to show how MPs can help influence the NHS and help breast cancer patients by increasing awareness of the signs and symptoms of breast cancer, driving early diagnosis and ensuring access to the best possible screening services for eligible women. By backing the campaign Oliver Heald also supports Breakthrough’s aim of making sure that everyone with breast cancer has access to the right personalised treatment.
Commenting Oliver Heald said, “Breast cancer is still the most commonly diagnosed cancer in the UK and an estimated 1,000 lives could be saved every year in England alone if breast cancer survival rates matched the best in Europe. The Westminster Fly-In highlighted key areas where things must change so more women will stop dying from breast cancer and we must act on these now. Sally has done so much to raise awareness of the signs and symptoms of Breast cancer and it was a pleasure to meet her at Westminster. We are also intending in the near future to hold a stall in Letchworth to provide leaflets to interested shoppers.”
As part of the campaign, Oliver and Sally are also urging constituents in North East Herts to join the fight and pledge their support for the campaign at www.savemorelives.org.uk
Chris Askew, Chief Executive of Breakthrough Breast Cancer, said: “We’re thrilled with the success of this year’s Westminster Fly-In and it’s great to see so many of our CAN members meeting with their MPs to urge them to make a difference to all those affected by breast cancer. We’re doing what we can to discover more effective treatments and understand more about breast cancer at our dedicated Research Centre but we need MPs and the NHS to take action to ensure that these treatments reach all those who will benefit from them.”
You can back Breakthrough Breast Cancer’s Save More Lives campaign and find out more at http://www.savemorelives.org.uk
-Ends-
Notes to editors:
For high res images, interviews or further press information:
Contact Victoria Auckland on 0207 025 2423 or email press@breakthrough.org.uk. Out of hours please call 07778 682 001.
About Breakthrough Breast Cancer:
• Breakthrough Breast Cancer’s vision is a future free from the fear of breast cancer.
• We are dedicated to improving and saving lives through finding the causes of breast cancer, enabling early detection, ensuring precise diagnosis, discovering new and better treatments and improving medical services.
• We fund ground-breaking research, campaign for better services and treatments and raise awareness of the signs and symptoms of breast cancer. Through this work the charity believes passionately that breast cancer can be beaten and the fear of the disease removed for good.
About breast cancer:
• Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in the UK – more than 48,000 women and around 350 men are diagnosed every year.
• Breast cancer accounts for nearly 1 in 3 of all female cancers and one in eight women in the UK will develop breast cancer at some point in their lifetime.
• Around 1,000 women die of breast cancer every month in the UK.
• The good news is that more women than ever in the UK are surviving breast cancer thanks to better awareness, better treatments and better screening.
Breakthrough’s Campaigns & Advocacy Network (CAN)
• Breakthrough CAN plays an important part as we work to achieve our vision by bringing together over 2,000 people with different experiences and knowledge of breast cancer, and organisations ranging from local community and women’s groups through to breast cancer support groups and trade unions, to campaign for improvements in breast cancer services across the country.
• By campaigning to secure important improvements to prevention, diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer CAN members are changing lives and futures.
The Westminster Fly-In 2012
• The Westminster Fly-In is the biggest event in Breakthrough's Campaigns & Advocacy Network calendar.
• For the past 12 years, hundreds of campaigners and advocates from across the country have been making a difference by attending this flagship campaigning event to put breast cancer priorities on the Westminster agenda and make sure the NHS has the best possible breast cancer services available.