21 Oct Essex Pancreatic cancer survivor calls for Government action to improve shockingly low treatment rates for future patients
Clacton-On-Sea resident Mary Farley is backing a new charity campaign urging Government to fund an improved care pathway for pancreatic cancer, after she was diagnosed with the disease during the pandemic. Even though the NHS was overstretched, Mary received outstanding and prompt care which enabled her to have surgery – the only potentially curative treatment for the disease. Pancreatic Cancer UK today (Thursday 19 October 2023) launches its ‘Don’t Write Me Off’ campaign calling on all governments across the UK to fund a new, faster and fairer pathway to give all patients what Mary received – the best chance of survival and quality of life.
Currently 7 in 10 people with pancreatic cancer receive no treatment at all – not even chemotherapy (1). Pancreatic cancer currently has the lowest treatment rate (34%) of any common cancer – comparing poorly with treatment rates for breast (86%), bowel (74%) and lung (56%), cancers (1). Just 10% of those diagnosed with the disease receive surgery, the only potentially curative treatment. Only a quarter of patients receive life-extending chemotherapy. As a result, more than half of people with pancreatic cancer die within three months of diagnosis.
In October 2020, Mary, 67 was struck with a tiredness so intense she had to stop to sit at every bus stop she passed on her way home from her job as a teaching assistant. When a pupil and colleague pointed out her yellow eyes, she rang her doctor who told her to head straight to the hospital. That was on a Friday and by the Sunday, an ultrasound and CT scan confirmed she had pancreatic cancer.
Mary said: “The diagnosis had been fast; from referral to diagnosis in just two days. The doctor said to me if I hadn’t of come to them now and left it even two weeks later, I probably wouldn’t have seen Christmas, but they reassured me they had caught me on time.”
Patients are often waiting too long for a confirmed diagnosis and for treatment to begin because of challenges in coordination between different healthcare teams; and significant staff shortages across almost every role connected to cancer. It is estimated that the NHS will be short of 4,000 cancer nurses across the UK by 2030 (2).
Mary was booked in for surgery on the 5th of November. Due to the pandemic, she was unable to see her family before the intensive operation and spent much of the wait speaking to her children on FaceTime. When the morning of the 5th arrived, Mary’s consultant had to fight for her operation to take place due to the backlog caused by COVID. Her consultant managed to highlight the urgency of her situation and she was wheeled down for the 8-hour operation.
While people wait pancreatic cancer can spread quickly, and their health deteriorate, leaving them ineligible for treatment they might otherwise have received. Due to a lack of coordination and expertise in pancreatic cancer they are often discharged back into the community with a lack of support in place. However, after her surgery Mary received excellent support – something she realises she is incredibly lucky to have had as she recovered.
Mary said: “I couldn’t believe how weak I was after surgery. When I got home from hospital, the dietician rang me to give me more advice on Pancreatic Enzyme Replacement Therapy [PERT] which is needed for food digestion. It’s so disheartening reading about the stories of people who were diagnosed as terminal but weren’t given PERT tablets – they basically starved to death and never had any quality of life. It’s awful. PERT was vital to me being fit enough for chemo, which I was able to start in January 2021.”
Mary had five months of gruelling chemotherapy before being told she was cancer-free on the 5th of June 2021. She is very thankful to King’s College and Guy’s and St Thomas’ hospital for the outstanding care she received. She said: “It’s now been two years and I’m still receiving amazing support. I’ve never once felt alone during my experience. I know if I’ve got any kind of worry or something comes up, I can just pick that phone up and ask for my clinical nurse.”
Pancreatic Cancer UK has designed the first improved care pathway for the disease in partnership with 300 health professionals and patient representatives. The charity’s analysis shows that if the pathway was implemented now, then by 2028:
Overall treatment rates for people with pancreatic cancer could more than double from 3 in 10 people receiving treatment to 6 in 10 (4)
The proportion of people receiving surgery, the only potentially curative treatment, could almost treble from 10% to 23% (5)
Survival rates would increase from 7.1% to 10.4% by 2028 – the biggest improvement in 50 years (6)
Over the next five years, almost 5,000 (4,940) people could have a chance to live longer (7)
Scotland is currently the only UK nation that has committed in its national cancer strategy to focus on speeding up diagnosis and improving survival for pancreatic and other less survivable cancers. Through its ‘Don’t Write Me Off’ campaign, Pancreatic Cancer UK is calling on all governments across the UK to urgently implement and fund the improved care pathway to ensure future patients experience a diagnosis, treatment and care journey that is:
Faster: With diagnosis within 21 days of being sent for tests, and treatment within 21 days of diagnosis.
Fairer: With expert care and support for everyone, no matter where they live, or their chance of survival.
Funded: With sustained government funding to make these changes possible, so more people can be saved.
Mary said: “I know that when I am doing an event to fundraise, practically everybody there is doing so someone’s memory. The issue is often the vagueness of symptoms. In my case, due to where the blockage was, the jaundice came out early. My doctor said this was my saving grace, but I think my saving grace was getting the right doctor and team.”
Now Mary is urging people to sign a new petition telling governments across all UK nations: don’t write off people with pancreatic cancer, so that they can have the same chance she did. For more information visit: https://www.pancreaticcancer.org.uk/dont-write-me-off/
