Hello everyone,
There have been two big events for the Brain Tumour Research team in the past week and they were the launch events for our Scottish Manifesto and our Welsh manifesto ahead of the May elections for those devolved Parliaments.
You can read about the Welsh event here and there was a post in the run up to the Holyrood event here.
There will be a further update post event from Holyrood and we really do recommend that you keep an eye on our Latest News page so you can get the most contemporary updates on our campaigning activity. Also, if you aren’t already signed up to our weekly newsletters then now would be the time to do so – they frequently have a campaigning focus too and signing up to that as well as the campaigning update and reading our Latest News means you will always be in the know about the impactful campaigning work we are doing together. Sign up for the weekly news here.
Alongside the launch events, where we are delighted to welcome our supporters and where we bring onside elected representatives, it is the smaller conversations we have around these events that build relationships and cement plans to take our agenda forward.
Whilst in Cardiff we secured time to meet with Mabon ap Gwynfor (pictured holding our manifesto). He has served as Plaid Cymru's Health, Social Care and Housing Spokesperson and Chief Whip since June 2023. Should Plaid Cymru be leading the Welsh Government post-election, then it is highly likely that the health brief would be Mabon’s. Mabon was generous with his time for us and remembered that we have spoken with him before.
Our discussion ranged from clinical trials to a national cancer plan, from industry involvement to tissue storage and, of course, to the prioritisation of research as the only way we can improve options and outcomes for brain tumour patients.
We thank Mabon for his engagement and interest and look forward to continuing engagement with him and with Plaid at the Senedd.
This week we joined our friends at Cancer 52 for a ‘Big Conversation’ in Manchester about the next steps for the National Cancer Plan. We have been a member of this coalition of charities for over 15 years and worked closely with them as the work on Scott Arthur’s Rare Cancers Bill neared becoming part of the legislature. The ‘Big Conversation’ was a chance to meet with colleagues across the cancer space to look at plans, ambitions and best practice and to hear from people like Shane Cohen-Murray, Head of Cancer Strategy, Department for Health and Social Care.
It was also a chance for smaller conversation though, like ones we had with members of the pharmaceutical industry who are becoming more and more visible at these events. This relationship building will deliver in time and we have always believed that it is by working together – charities, politicians and industry – that we can create an ecosystem for researchers to flourish and the movement of innovation from scientist’s bench to patient’s bedside can be expedited.
That is the route to Brain Tumour Research’s vision – a cure for all types of brain tumours.
That’s if for this week, we’ll be back next week before we have a fortnight off for Easter.
Wishing you all a peaceful week.
Karen, Katherine, Hugh and Jana.
