A very special debate was held in the House of Commons today focused on the battle with rare childhood cancers.
Winchester & Chandler's Ford MP, Steve Brine, told the story of a little boy called Atticus from Winchester who lost his battle with DIPG (diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma) - an aggressive form of brain tumour - in February 2019.
The MP, who was Cancer Minister from 2017-2019 said; "It was the privilege of my life to hold the role of cancer Minister in the previous Government. Through that work, I learned of the battles of DIPG patients and the all-too-tragic outcomes."
And he went on to recall the Tessa Jowell Brain Cancer Mission which seeks, among other things, to stimulate the research community to see new research propositions come forward in the field.
He said; "The UK does have excellent collaborative research at our medical facilities, but we must assign sufficient funding to DIPG research and implementation of the new treatments. I urge the Government to convene and appoint special UK experts directly to centralise efforts and bring forward that new prioritisation strategy, so that we can stimulate the research market."
Health Minister Jo Churchill responded to the debate.
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Read the debate in full via Hansard
