Kilimanjaro for Cancer: World Cancer Day

Friday, 5 February 2016

World Cancer Day - Letter to MP

As well as planning to climb Kilimanjaro to raise funds for charity I'm also spending my time campaigning on the issues of profiteering and conflicts of interest within the cancer industry, something which I was very shocked to discover during our cancer journey. It is hard to believe but cancer has become one of the most lucrative markets on the planet, while one person dies of the disease every four seconds. As high profit levels depend on time-limited patents, profits would plummet if genuine cures were developed, so it's not surprising that progress in developing cures is slow - we are relying of profit-motivated organisations to develop cures that are not in their interest.

Yesterday was World Cancer Day and I chose this day to write to my MP about these issues, which I believe are the single biggest obstacle to bringing forward the day when we no longer live in fear of cancer.

I've shared my letter on Huffington Post: Cancer Widower's Letter to MP about Cancer's Tug of War
If you agree with the issues raised in my letter please help me to put pressure on the Government to tackle this problem by forwarding the link to your own MP - there is a link at the bottom of the Huffington Post page to do this.

UPDATE : I have now launched a campaign called “Dying for a Cure” to press for changes to tackle this issue. It has its own website (dyingforacure.org), petition, Facebook and Twitter pages. Please visit the website to find out more and see how you can support the campaign.

What's It All About?

In September 2016 I will be attempting to climb Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest free-standing mountain in the world, in memory of my wife Beata who tragically died of ovarian cancer at the age of just 41 in October 2015.

I will be raising money to give something back to two charities that did more than any other to support Beata during her fight against her cancer and during the final weeks of her life under palliative care - Yes To Life and the Princess Alice Hospice.

Why Kilimanjaro? I wanted to do something significant that reflected the scale of the challenge Beata faced and also the courage and determination that she showed during her fight. So, climbing the world’s highest free-standing mountain seemed appropriate!

Dying for a Cure

As well as fundraising I'm also campaigning to Stop Profiteering from Cancer. Perhaps rather naively, I hadn't realised how cancer was being commercially exploited until Beata and I became immersed in the world of cancer. I was staggered to learn that we're only investing in new drugs that can make a profit and are then allowing pharmaceutical companies to sell them back to us at exorbitant prices that the NHS often can't afford, even after R&D costs have been paid back many times over and even when the public has helped to pay for the research. Meanwhile, one person dies of cancer every 4 seconds.

Many more lives could be saved if drug prices were reduced and if R&D was optimised for health benefits not financial benefits, but because the development of these drugs is in the hands of private companies, they are making decisions to maximise shareholder returns rather than lives saved, effectively condemning millions of people across the world to premature deaths.

So, I've set up a campaign called Dying for a Cure to lobby the UK Government to do overhaul the whole system for developing cancer drugs, to put lives before profits. The campaign is linked to an online petition.

To find out more please visit the Dying for a Cure website.

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Friday, 5 February 2016

World Cancer Day - Letter to MP