Let’s put brain tumour patients at the heart of the General Election.
Ensuring the voice of the brain tumour community is heard in Westminster has always been a priority. Now, with a date set for the General Election, it is more important than ever that we unite to turn up the volume and drive change for brain tumour patients.
This is our opportunity to make sure that those who want to represent us in the next Parliament hear loud and clear that their constituents want action on the biggest cancer killer of children and adults under the age of 40.
In the run up to the election on Thursday 4th July, we will be lobbying our contacts across all the main political parties to ask them to declare brain tumours a clinical priority. This includes developing a delivery plan to provide adequate resourcing and funding of discovery, translational and clinical research.
It is time to do things differently.
With your dedicated support, we have already developed a clear political ambition to improve the situation for brain tumour patients. In January, we delivered our petition to Downing Street, followed by the launch of our manifesto in March.And through our role as Secretariat for the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Brain Tumours (APPGBT), we work with the members to shape the agenda for meetings at Westminster to discuss policy issues that matter to the brain tumour community.
To maintain this momentum, we need your help. There are many ways to make your voice heard, and we are delighted to launch our new General Election webpage today which has ideas and support on how working together we can make the word of the brain tumour community heard. These include;
• Writing to your Prospective Parliamentary Candidates (PPCs) to ask them to pledge their support
• Attending local hustings meetings to pose questions to your PPCs
• Making sure that you have a copy of our manifesto by your door ready for when the PPCs come knocking. Ask them to pledge their support for declaring brain tumours a clinical priority and get a photo of them with our manifesto. As you can see below our campaigner Alison has already engaged with her MP John Glen - (and she has done this while hobbling around with a broken foot - hope the boot comes off soon Alison!).
Contact me hugh@braintumourresearch.org to get a copy of the manifesto posted to you, or you can download it, and remember to send us details of any PPCs who pledge support.
That's it for this week and please do feedback to us on our webpages and ask questions - we are here ready and willing to support you as you make sure that your elected representative is committed to declaring brain tumours a clinical priority. As apart of this we we need the development of a delivery plan to provide adequate resourcing and funding of discovery, translational and clinical research. This would show the commitment needed to approaching improving options and outcomes for brain tumour patients with appropriate urgency.
Wishing you all a peaceful time until next Friday.
Hugh and Thomas