Andrew Miller, MP for Ellesmere Port and Neston, met with constituent Celia Webber from Breakthrough Breast Cancer’s Campaigns & Advocacy Network (CAN) at the 12^th annual Westminster Fly-In event at the House of Commons to discuss how to improve breast cancer survival rates. Andrew also took the time to sign up to Breakthrough’s Bridging the Gap in Breast Cancer Survival Charter, which outlines the commitments needed to make sure more women survive breast cancer.  

Nearly 48,000 women and 300 men are diagnosed with the disease each year, making it the most commonly diagnosed cancer in the UK. Even though more women are surviving breast cancer than ever before thanks to better awareness, screening and treatments, survival in England still lags behind some other European countries.  If England was to achieve survival rates at the European best for breast cancer, an estimated 1,000 lives could be saved each year.

In response to this challenge, Breakthrough Breast Cancer developed the Bridging the Gap in Breast Cancer Survival Charter and believes that the Government can tackle this issue by supporting its key principles; promoting breast awareness messages to help drive early diagnosis, providing access for all eligible women to gold standard NHS Breast Screening Programmes and maximising the potential of breast cancer research, to create personalised or targeted treatments.

 Andrew Miller said:

 “We have the opportunity to make effective change that can save lives.   It is clear that by following the Breakthrough Breast Cancer charter principles, we give ourselves the best possible chance to match our European counterparts’ breast cancer survival rates and make a real difference”

More information about the work of Breakthrough Breast Cancer can be found at: www.breakthrough.org.uk/gap

Ends

20^th October 2011

Photo

Photo shows Celia Webber from Ellesmere Port with Andrew Miller at the Westminster Fly-In.