Cancer. It's not really a word that conjures up images of celebration, is it? But with the past 10 years bringing numerous achievements in the fight against cancer, Sarah Brown called on celebrities, specialists and survivors to join her at Number 10 to celebrate.
A pregnant Denise van Outen (sipping elderflower cordial just weeks before she is due to give birth to her first child with Lee Mead) and Nicola Roberts joined the party. The Girls Aloud singer is fighting to make sunbeds illegal to those under 18, which health secretary Andy Burnham joked should be called the "Roberts Bill".
Like Kylie with breast cancer and Jade Goody with cervical cancer, there's no doubt that celebrities are instrumental in driving awareness - after Jade Goody's cervical cancer battle an extra 400,000 women were screened last year.
The government is on target to reduce at least 20% of cancer deaths in people under 75 by 2010, with almost 9,000 lives saved in 2007 compared to 1996. The smoking ban, extended screenings and an increase in cancer specialists are some of the other achievements that guests were raising their glass to.
However, there is still work to be done. "The frontier is early diagnosis, especially when it comes to cancers that are harder to detect, such as ovarian cancer," Andy Burnham told handbag.com in an interview at the event.
"We have a wonderful healthcare system here in the UK, it's true. But we are always challenged to do more.
"We want early diagnosis. It's getting people to go in the first place." Men especially are often not diagnosed until it's too late and experts agree that wives, girlfriends and female friends can help save lives by encouraging check-ups.
"We want more testing capacity so people can get their results within a week and a referral within two," Burnham continued. "People should just be able to go to one place to get tested, not several hospitals."
After the success of the last 10 years, Andy Burnham wants to continue to set national improvement targets for cancer. Let's hope in 10 years we'll be raising our glasses again...
More information:
www.dh.gov.uk
www.cancerresearchuk.org
Picture: Denise van Outen and Nicola Roberts celebrating the achievements in the fight against cancer at an event hosted by Sarah Brown at 10 Downing Street yesterday.
You should know about... ovarian cancer
