Dear Editor,
Being diagnosed with cancer is hard enough, but imagine what it feels like if you are given this devastating news after an agonising wait of six months or even a year since you first went to see a doctor or nurse about something that did not feel right.
That’s the reality faced by countless numbers of people who are diagnosed with sarcoma cancer in the UK. These cancers of the bone and soft tissue are uncommon, and it is partly because of this that they are tearing apart people’s lives.
I lost my close friend and mentor Simon Mellows to sarcoma a number of years ago. One in three sarcoma patients in the UK waited at least six months after first speaking to a healthcare professional before receiving an accurate diagnosis.
As patron of Sarcoma UK, I know how important it is that someone with a suspicious lump or bone pain has it checked out, even during a pandemic.
Not only that, but we have to ensure that people are referred to the right place for treatment by experts at the right time. Late diagnosis or misdiagnosis has heart-breaking consequences.
Lives in the UK could ultimately be saved, which is why I am writing in support of the charity’s new report that focuses on the early diagnosis issues faced by sarcoma patients right now.
Richard Whitehead MBE,
London 2012 and Rio 2016 gold medallist, Paralympian and Sarcoma UK patron
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