This week I led an Adjournment Debate in the House of Commons discussing the outcomes for children who have been tragically diagnosed with cancer.
Ethan Adams, a brave little warrior from South Shields, sadly lost his battle with Rhabdomyosarcoma in August 2021 after several incorrect diagnoses. I paid tribute to Ethan in the chamber and outlined the work that both Ethan’s Arc, the charity established in his name, and Alice’s Arc do in order to boost research into specific childhood cancers and treatments.
Far too little is spent on research into childhood cancers – Great Ormond Street has found that only 2p in every £1 of cancer research funding goes into childhood cancers – and the similarity between some childhood diseases and the emergence of cancerous symptoms means that diagnoses are so often too late.
Ethan’s family also added that the drugs used to treat Ethan were the same drugs used since the 70s and 80s – which is simply not good enough.
You can read the full transcript of the debate HERE, and read BBC Look North’s coverage HERE.