Fife MSP Alex Rowley has endorsed Breast Cancer Now’s #2050Challenge which is asking MSP’s and the Scottish Government to support four key things they believe can make a difference in tackling breast cancer.
Currently around 1,000 women a year die from breast cancer in Scotland, and through the measurers proposed by Breast Cancer Now they believe that number of deaths could be stopped by 2050.
Meeting with the Breast Cancer Now team in the Scottish Parliament, Cowdenbeath MSP Alex Rowley supported calls to improve access to life-extending medicines, continue to catch breast cancer earlier by protecting the Detect Cancer Early Programme, offer lifestyle advice and support to women when they attend breast screenings and helping to make more breakthroughs by freeing up clinicians’ time to take part in research.
Speaking at the event Mr Rowley said: “Everyone knows someone affected by cancer and we as a Parliament should ensure that measures are always taken to improve the outcomes of those diagnosed with the disease. As well as battling cancer, people often have to battle for the drugs that can help fight the condition, we must ensure that at times so distressing in a person’s life that they have the access to life-extending medicines they need.
“I am proud to support the calls by Breast Cancer Now and their #2050Challenge and look forward with hope to the day that women no longer die from breast cancer.”
Breast Cancer Now’s Director for Scotland, Mary Allison, said:
“I’d like to thank Alex Rowley MSP for his commitment to help stop women dying from breast cancer by 2050.
“The reality is that in the next ten years nearly 10,000 women in Scotland could die from breast cancer*; that’s 10,000 mothers, grandmothers, daughters or friends.
“However, today we have made significant steps towards our vision that – if we all act now – by 2050 everyone who develops breast cancer will live.”
Notes to editors:
- Estimated projection for the number of women dying from breast cancer in Scotland between 2015-2025 is 9,868. Calculated by the Statistical Information Team at Cancer Research UK, March 2015, based on data from Sasieni P, et al. Cancer mortality projections in the UK to 2030 (unpublished). Analyses undertaken and data supplied upon request; January 2016. Similar data can be found on the Cancer Research UK Cancer Statistics website.
About Breast Cancer Now:
- Breast Cancer Now is the UK’s largest breast cancer charity working in Scotland.
- Breast Cancer Now’s ambition is that by 2050 everyone who develops breast cancer will live. The charity is determined to stop women dying from the disease, working in a new, collaborative way and bringing together all those affected by the disease to fund research, share knowledge and find answers.
- Breast Cancer Now’s world-class research is focused entirely on breast cancer. The charity supports nearly 450 of the world’s brightest researchers at more than 20 locations across the UK and Ireland. In Scotland we support 21 scientists, working on research projects in locations such as Dundee, St Andrews, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Stirling. Together, they’re working to discover how to prevent breast cancer, how to detect it earlier and how to treat it effectively at every stage so we can stop the disease taking lives.
- Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in women in Scotland. Over 4,600 women are diagnosed with breast cancer and around 1,000 people die from the disease in Scotland each year.
- Breast Cancer Now launched in June 2015, created by the merger of leading research charities Breast Cancer Campaign and Breakthrough Breast Cancer.
- For more information on Breast Cancer Now’s work, visit breastcancernow.org or follow us on Twitter or on Facebook or call 0131 226 0769.
End photo shows Alex Rowley with Mary Allison the Charity’s Director for Scotland
