Parliamentary Reception

Beating Bowel Cancer’s annual BE LOUD BE CLEAR parliamentary reception took place on Wednesday 20 January at the House of Commons, sponsored by Dr Howard Stoate MP. The event marks the start of BE LOUD BE CLEAR 2010 which this year puts the spotlight on bowel cancer screening. Held at the Terrace Pavilion, with views over the Thames, the reception drew an excellent turnout of 70 MPs and Lords, many of whom got into the spirit of BE LOUD by having their photo taken wearing loud fancy dress, including Mike Hancock MP, pictured. A further 70 guests including 17 Patient Voices and their families attended making this year’s reception one of the busiest so far.

Dr Howard Stoate MP opened the event by introducing the BE LOUD BE CLEAR campaign and encouraged his peers to get involved. Dr Stoate is a fantastic supporter and active member of Beating Bowel Cancer’s Parliamentary Voices. Sadly this will be Dr Stoate’s 6th and final year as host of our parliamentary reception as he will be standing down as an MP to return to General Practice full time.  His speech focused on the importance of early diagnosis and outlined why screening is vital to reducing mortality rates for bowel cancer.

Hilary Whittaker, Chief Executive of Beating Bowel Cancer, spoke about the progress made since the introduction of the NHS bowel cancer screening programme in 2006. She raised the issue of participation rates for bowel cancer screening – currently averaging at 55% which Beating Bowel Cancer believes is too low.

So far 4,000 bowel cancers have been diagnosed, and most significantly 17,000 polyps have been removed, potentially preventing countless bowel cancers from developing.  Beating Bowel Cancer is calling for an increase in participation rates to 77% to bring bowel cancer screening in line with other national cancer screening programmes. This would mean that by 2012 over 1 million more people would be screened and a further 2,000 more bowel cancers detected.

Beating Bowel Cancer Patient Voice Sandy Smith from Leicester spoke about her personal experience of bowel cancer. Diagnosed in 2007, Sandy gave her perspective on the bowel cancer screening programme as someone who was in her 50s and therefore not eligible for screening so missed the opportunity for earlier diagnosis.

Sandy is pictured (right) with Patient Voice Tim Jelley and Beating Bowel Cancer's Chief Executive Hilary Whittaker.

Next to speak was Ann Keen MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary for Health and former nurse. Ann spoke about the developments in store for the bowel cancer screening programme, confirming extension of the screening age to include those aged 70-75 years by end of 2010. In addition she exclusively revealed that the Department of Health is currently working on improvements to the design of the screening kit to make them more user-friendly and to encourage increased participation. On the subject of extending the screening programme to include those aged 50-59 in England, Ann confirmed that this is something the Government will be deciding on at the end of this year.

This year’s BE LOUD BE CLEAR parliamentary reception was a great success and the feedback from MPs and Lords was excellent. Thank you to all those who attended the event and showed their support for BE LOUD BE CLEAR.

The BE LOUD BE CLEAR campaign runs from 25-31 January 2010. For ways to get involved click here.