Timon Colegrove

Extremely concerning statistics from King's on the cancer crisis. As many as 100,000 people affected by missed diagnosis or delayed diagnosis/treatment between March 2020 - January 2021. How many will that be now? The life-years lost will be devastating.

More and more headlines on the cancer crisis. Oncologists in our Rutherford network and beyond have been as worried as me about this for months and months. The life-years lost will be staggering. We need to tackle this crisis with the same effort as the virus in my view.

We don't hear much in parts of the media these days about the tens of thousands of people who have missed their cancer diagnosis... I was fortunate to receive my cancer diagnosis relatively early. Thousands and thousands of people won't get that chance.

I've been critical of politicians over the lack of attention on the cancer crisis, so to see MPs debating radiotherapy access in Westminster today is a huge step forward. Thanks to all involved who so eloquently and passionately outlined the crisis that we are facing.

A tumour won't grow and spread uncontrollably over days or weeks, but months are often the difference between life/death. 50,000 missing cancer patients, with 24,000 extra significantly delayed. Those graphs aren't shown at the conferences. With the numbers set to increase.