The Reader: With Government help we can ensure Tessa Jowell’s legacy

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Legacy: Dame Tessa Jowell
AFP/Getty Images
16 May 2018
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WITH the very sad news of Tessa Jowell’s death, the Government is paying a wonderful tribute by doubling its commitment to brain tumour research to £40 million. Cancer Research UK is also investing an extra £25 million over the next five years, in addition to the £13 million we already spend each year.

Over the last few decades, there has been little improvement in survival from brain cancers; just 14 per cent of people survive for 10 or more years. Tessa’s campaign over recent months raised the profile of the disease and the urgent need for better treatments to help make this appalling statistic a figure of the past. One of her many legacies will be a much-needed increased focus on brain cancer research, something Cancer Research UK will be honoured to take forward.

The new investment will help researchers unlock insights into the biology of brain tumours, which in turn will improve the prospects of earlier diagnosis and accelerate the development of more effective drugs and other forms of treatment.

We are looking forward to working alongside the Government to ensure Tessa’s legacy. We will also name Cancer Research UK’s brain tumour conference in her memory, as a tribute to her infinite compassion and hopes for other patients.
Sir Harpal Kumar
CEO, Cancer Research UK

EDITOR'S REPLY

Dear Sir Harpal

I WAS privileged to attend one of Baroness Jowell’s last public engagements — her visit last month to Maggie’s Barts, a fabulous cancer support centre for patients at St Bartholomew’s hospital. It was immediately apparent how comfortable she was in the company of fellow patients, and how much support they were able to give each other as they chatted over tea.

Her speech in the House of Lords, in which she called for access to pioneering therapies and encouraged researchers to work together, is as great a legacy as her role in the 2012 Olympics and Sure Start centres. The new Government funding for research into brain tumours is welcome but it comes after decades of underinvestment. It is also vital that the spend on cancer, both for research and treatment, increases — and that patients, such as those with leukaemia, are not denied approved drugs such as Ibrutinib, as my colleague on The Times, Sean O’Neill, highlighted last weekend.

Ross Lydall, Health Editor

The NHS needs its foreign doctors

Current immigration rules restricting recruitment of foreign doctors are adding to the crisis that some NHS trusts are facing. The British International Doctors Association (Bida) is worried that applying such a cap without recognising the needs of the NHS will put severely stretched services such as A&E into firefighting mode. This could jeopardise patient safety.

At a time when there is a significant recruitment crisis of doctors in the NHS we are concerned that the Prime Minister has chosen the wrong time to cap visas. We urge Theresa May to intervene since these doctors could have helped to alleviate medical staffing pressure.
Chandra Kanneganti and Ashish Dhawan
British International Doctors Association

Our charade with the EU must end

When it comes to our future customs relationship with Europe [“Hunt: We should conduct Brexit debates in private”, May 14], Theresa May has done with her MPs what nobody would choose to do with their own children. That is, to give them two options — neither of which will come to pass — and ask them to argue over which is best, only to later have to disappoint them all.

The European Union has made it clear that the ideas proposed so far by the UK are not on the table. It is time for this charade to end and for the Government to come up with serious options. We cannot leave the European Union and ask to be able to diverge from its rules and expect it not to put up a hard border between the Republic of Ireland and the North.
Chris Key

Arsene Wenger’s dignified departure

The send-off for Arsene Wenger has been perfect. The club has conducted itself in a classy way with fantastic communications and online content, and Wenger has remained dignified, which has given fans the chance to remember his many achievements. The banners, chants and love will live long in the memory of the members of the Arsenal Supporters’ Trust, which may have felt it was time for a change but always respected the man, known to many as “the boss”.

As for what happens now, opinions vary. Many want someone with experience; others are keen to support whoever is in charge. After many changes the role of manager may be different to what we have seen over the past 22 years but one thing is for sure: it’s interesting times for the Arsenal.
Akhil Vyas
Arsenal Supporters’ Trust

The Proms have a wonderful variety

In TOM Service’s very interesting article on the Proms [“Don’t just call the Proms ‘classical’: they tick so many more boxes”, May 11] he questions the term “classical” music. In simplified terms it was always used to describe music that was not pop or jazz — or serious music, to put it another way.

I agree that in recent years the Proms have ventured into other genres of music — which, in my view, is not a bad thing.

As for something that’s classical but also contemporary, again it was also accepted that contemporary music refers to pieces written during the past 50 years.

The overriding fact is that, as he says, every Prom is an unrepeatable one-off experience, like no other I know in nearly 60 years of concert going.
Mike Morfey

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