I’m grateful to see the motion on Cancer care passed at Conference but I am sorry to my core that it had to be written in the first place.
I’m coming from a slightly different place than you might expect, partly because that place is Scotland and I know what is called for wouldn’t apply, but I wanted to tell a story which whilst does not have a happy ending, it had a happy-ish journey.
My mum died of cancer just over 18 months ago. She was diagnosed in December, and left us in the following July.
There wasn’t much time for the system not to work for her.
I would be lying if I said there were things in terms of her care I wouldn’t change, but I don’t want the perfect to be the enemy of the good, and I’m lucky enough to be able to speak to the positives of our experience.
She spent a lot of her time in a specialist palliative care unit. Somewhere which was welcoming and spacious, with the most beautiful garden to look out on and spend time in.
If you were to look up kindness or heart or positivity in the dictionary there you would see all of the doctors and nurses we encountered.
They were always there. We never had to worry about that. We laughed and we shared fruit the children of one of the nurses had picked earlier that day. They genuinely brought us a lot of joy.
I tell all this because I know there is a stark juxtaposition in people’s experiences. I work for Alex Cole-Hamilton and Christine Jardine and our inboxes are filled not with the tale I have just told you.
We hear of postcode lotteries, of waits too long and too frightening for people to do anything other than spend the money they have to go private, or to come to us to take some of the burden of the fight from them.
And they shouldn’t have to fight.
I don’t think it’s an untruth to say often you can live your life if you have been touched by this disease, regardless of how it affects you, but so many people do not get that opportunity.
As a liberal I am motivated completely by making sure that everyone despite their background or the choices they have made along their way is able to live the best life they can, that the support is available to do so. Whether you are living with cancer or someone you love is.
That’s why I believe in this motion, and I hope you do too.
* Jenny Marr is a Liberal Democrat member living in Edinburgh and former co-President of Liberal Youth Scotland
Follow @libdemvoice.org on Bluesky
Like us on Facebook
Subscribe to our feed
Sign-up for our daily email digest
Georges I-IV, Boy George, George Harrison and Henry George
Multicultural working
Street surgeries tonight #dundeewestend
Throwing in the towel
Taking a goat to the library
Steve Trevethan
Geoff Reid
Michael BG
Peter Martin
Peter Davies
4 Comments
Sorry to read about your mum. My comment would be that I have always been impressed with the quality of care I have received from the Scottish NHS, and there is no doubt the doctors and nurses work extremely hard to do the best they can for their patients (plus other staff, I’m sure) – the issue, however, is getting into the system. My GP practice now has only 1 doctor (used to have 4 or 5) and has employed more nurses as they have had no applications to fill GP posts. My NHS dental practice has been deregistering patients since they have been unable to fill dentist vacancies since two dentists left to return to mainland Europe after Brexit. Local Accident and Emergency units are struggling with huge numbers of patients, often because primary health care is difficult to access. Despite record spending on healthcare and record numbers of staff, our NHS badly needs even more of both to cope with rising demand. I’m sure my experiences in Scotland are replicated in the other countries of the UK irrespective of the political party in control of each country.
Thank you for writing an important piece at a difficult personal time.
Might but one of the general disasters brought by the current imposed socio-economic thinking-attitude “norm” of austerity/ Neoliberalism be the prioritising money and the simulations of money, such as the G D P, ahead of actual resources?
Why the obsession with “ balancing the books” to the real life cost of over 20% of our children starving and life damaging and life stopping lacks of doctors, dentists, nurses etc?
Why are we regularly “officially” informed about the state of the stock exchange and not about the use of food banks?
@Steve Trevethan; 20% of ‘our children’ are not starving, if that were the case there would be multiple cases of children actually starving to death reported on an annual basis and whilst there have been (thankfully rare) cases, if you read the serious case reviews, without exception the cause was not lack of income in the family unit but rather neglect and abuse by the child’s guardian.
Name one case in which a child has starved to death , let’s say this century, in the U.K. in which there has not also been serious parental / guardian abuse of said child.
Your hyperbole undermines any case you may have re the need to alleviate relative poverty ( which by its definition will always exist) in the U.K.
Noah is right and that’s why the best way to help disadvantaged kids is free services. Healthcare, education, school meals, play facilities, public transport all help even up childrens chances whether their parents are poor or just don’t care.