Cancer Research UK : Party Conferences 2007

Party Conferences 2007

Harpal Kumar, Chief Executive of Cancer Research UK speaking at a fringe meeting at the Labour conference

During September and October 2007, Cancer Research UK attended the Liberal Democrats’, Labour and Conservatives’ party conferences to speak to politicians and party activists about key issues including cancer research, screening and public health.

At each conference, Cancer Research UK organised two fringe meetings, a private dinner with politicians and key stakeholders, and met with politicians.

Fringe Events with the Health Hotel

Cancer Research UK’s main public activity at the party conferences centred on fringe meetings. These were held in conjunction with the Health Hotel, which is a unique collaboration of 36 healthcare and medical organisations. The Health Hotel organised 42 events, which attracted over 5000 attendees at the conferences and aimed to highlight the key health-related issues.

Hard Choices - Future priorities in Cancer Care

Sandra Gidley MP, the Liberal Democrats’ Shadow Health Minister speaking at the Hard Choices fringe meeting at the Liberal Democrats’ party conference

In conjunction with five other cancer charities, Breakthrough Breast Cancer, Breast Cancer Care, Cancerbackup, Macmillan Cancer Support and Marie Curie Cancer Care, Cancer Research UK co-hosted the “Hard choices-future priorities for cancer care” fringe meeting. The event explored the key issues of three parts of the cancer ‘journey’:

How can we improve cancer prevention, awareness and early detection?
How can we diagnose and treat people with cancer better?
How can we improve what happens to people after their initial treatment ends?

Mark Simmonds MP, the Conservatives Shadow Health Minister speaking at the Hard Choices fringe meeting at the Conservatives party

At the Labour fringe meeting, Harpal Kumar, Chief Executive of Cancer Research UK, spoke about the key issues of prevention, awareness and early detection and the need for it to be integral to the forthcoming Cancer Reform Strategy. He was joined by Dr. Ian Gibson MP, Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Cancer, and a panel of experts who discussed other elements of cancer care.

Sandra Gidley MP, Liberal Democrat Shadow Heath Minister, joined the panel at the Liberal Democrats’ party conference and Mark Simmonds MP, the Conservatives’ Shadow Minister for Health, joined the panel at the Conservatives’ party conference.

Access All Areas- How can we tackle Health Inequalities?

Cancer Research UK also held a joint fringe meeting with Asthma UK, Healthcare Commission and Rethink, entitled, “Access All Areas: health inequalities?”, to discuss the measures the Government could take to improve the issue of health inequalities in the UK.

Rt. Hon Alan Johnson MP, the Secretary of State for Health speaking at the Access All Areas fringe meeting at the Labour conference

At the Labour conference, Harpal Kumar, Chief Executive of Cancer Research UK, was joined by the Rt Hon Alan Johnson, the Secretary of State for Health, who outlined the government’s vision for tackling health inequalities. The event was extremely well attended with around 130 people present.

At the Conservative fringe event the panel was joined by Stephen O’Brien, the Conservatives’ Shadow Minister for Health, and at the Liberal Democrats they were joined by Liberal Democrat Shadow Health Secretary, Norman Lamb MP.