Much of our team's focus this week has been reviewing our year across the Charity as a whole and talking about our ambitions for the year to come. These 'Team Development Days' are a welcome opportunity for the whole organisation to get together and, of course, offer us an opportunity to detail what we, as a campaigning team, have been up to, what our successes have been and what buttons we will be pushing in 2025.
However, we did also have two important Westminster meetings this week.
In the first, we joined the Chair of our APPG, Dame Siobhain McDonagh, to look at what came out of the recent meeting of the group and how we should be approaching 2025. Siobhain kindly took us to the Pugin Room for a cup of tea. It was a privilege to be in a 'meticulously restored gem within the House of Commons that seamlessly blends rich history with sophisticated charm'.
Sadly, the rules on photography in Westminster are extremely strict and no one is allowed to take photos or shoot videos in the chamber apart from the fixed TV cameras we’re used to seeing debates through. Photography is also banned in most of the rest of the Palace of Westminster for security reasons and restricted to the public areas of Westminster Hall, St Stephen’s Hall and New Palace Yard – as well as private rooms.
So, to illustrate the grandeur of the Pugin Room, we're using the library photo above. As for the actual meeting, we did agree, among other things, to get the APPG meeting dates for 2025 in the diary as soon as possible and also what agenda items would be of particular importance to Siobhain.
More updates on all of this early in the New Year.
While talking with Siobhain, we were joined by John Reid, Baron Reid of Cardowan PC, who has been a Member of the House of Lords since 2010. He was also a Member of Parliament from 1987 to 2010 and his career in the Commons saw him serve as Scottish Secretary from 1999 to 2001, Northern Ireland Secretary from 2001 to 2002, Chairman of the Labour Party and Minister without Portfolio from 2002 to 2003, Leader of the House of Commons and Lord President of the Council in 2003, Health Secretary from 2003 to 2005, Defence Secretary from 2005 to 2006, and Home Secretary from 2006 to 2007.
A man of huge political experience, he was very interested to hear about our work in the brain tumour space and, of course, he is all too aware of Siobhain and her sister Margaret's brain tumour story.
Whilst offering his support, he also gave us valuable insight into how he saw the best way to progress and challenge the risk-averse funding bodies – as he said on Tuesday, "No one is ever sacked for doing the same thing" – and that whilst this creates a risk-averse culture we, as campaigners, need to create a situation, and have political advocates, who make doing things differently the new default position.
We believe Siobhain has a significant part to play in achieving this in 2025.
Also at Westminster this week, Brain Tumour Research organised a roundtable meeting with Scott Arthur MP and colleagues from Cancer52, including The Brain Tumour Charity, Blood Cancer UK, Cancer Research UK (CRUK), as well as the Tessa Jowell Brain Cancer Mission and the Less Survivable Cancers Taskforce.
It was a wide-ranging discussion, with topics such as auto-enrolment onto clinical trials, UK trial readiness and a well-functioning trial database all on the agenda.
Primarily, though, we looked at ways to support Scott as he prepares for his Private Member's Bill, which he plans to use to propose incentives for pharmaceutical companies to develop new treatments for rare cancers such as glioblastoma, the cause of death of his father-in-law.
As Scott said: “We must strive for a future where glioblastoma is no longer a death sentence.”
These were the last meetings with both Siobhain and Scott in 2024 but we will be meeting with both again very early in 2025 – there is so much to be done in the New Year!
Please do keep on reading our campaigning updates to stay in touch with all of it and to work with us when we need your support to engage more MPs. It is by you amplifying the brain tumour community voice that we will make the difference and the change that we all so desperately long for.
We will be back with another update, the final one of 2024 next week.
Wishing you all a peaceful time until then,
Hugh, Thomas and Evan
Published Friday 13th December 2024.