March is Brain Tumour Awareness Month!
It was so insightful for me to attend The Brain Tumour Charity Parliamentary drop-in. Brain tumours are a particularly complex disease; there are 120 different types, and they can be low-grade to high-grade. Something difficult about brain cancers is that many of the NHS cancer programmes (prevention, screening, early diagnosis) end up not covering cancerous brain tumours because they act quite differently to other cancers.
I met charity volunteers who have been affected by a brain tumour either themselves, or their families.
I was delighted to bring in Angela from the Daniella Logun Foundation, and her sister Kelly. The Daniella Logun Foundation is a local charity based in Uxbridge and South Ruislip that focuses on raising awareness for brain tumours in children.
At the drop-in, I learnt that for Improving Brain Tumour Care (IBTC) surveys show that 41% of respondents said they visited their GP 3 or more times before getting a diagnosis. We MUST see the development of a new optimal diagnostic pathway across all 4 devolved nations to ensure everyone received a fast and efficient diagnosis of a brain tumour.
