Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen:
As I have found from many years of experience of trying to bring about change, many people are worried about moving away from familiar things—even those which do not work well. It is human nature to be apprehensive about the unknown; it also very human to fear and to try to avoid pain, so throughout our history we have sought to protect people in a way by avoiding discussion or even information about those illnesses for which science has not found a complete cure.
In the last century, tuberculosis was such a taboo subject that its name was not even mentioned for many years and for many other diseases it was only the outspoken evangelism of the pioneers of public health which led to their control and prevention in the absence of a cure.
Today, in Western Europe, cancer remains one of the most feared of those diseases that we have not yet completely conquered. [end p1] There is a fear of contracting cancer; there is the fear of having to live with it; but with the proper knowledge, these fears can be greatly reduced, the risk of cancer lessened and coping with it made easier.
In 1985, at the Milan meeting of the Heads of Government of the European Community, we agreed to work together to combat cancer. This year marks the culmination of much effort and a start to a programme which will affect millions of people throughout the Community.
The challenge we are facing is formidable. After heart disease, cancer is the major cause of suffering and death in the Community. It causes more than three-quarters of a million deaths a year and if present trends continue, this will rise to one million a year by the year 2000, with a further two million Community citizens suffering from the disease.
Lung cancer, as you know, is the main killer, accounting for some thirty per cent of male cancer deaths in the Community. For women, it is breast cancer which accounts for seventeen per cent of female cancer deaths.
In the United Kingdom alone, nearly a quarter of a million people develop cancer every year and 159,000 die from it, and I am afraid the trend is upwards. [end p2]
But we can do something about it. Europe's top cancer experts believe that we can reduce the projected increase in cancer deaths by the year 2000 by 15 per cent—or in human terms, by 150,000; 150,000 avoidable deaths a year in the Community as a whole—simply by applying and disseminating the information and knowledge we already have—and that is why we are here today.
Remarkable progress has already been made in recent years in the detection and treatment of cancer; development in techniques for screening and diagnosis, for applying anti-cancer drugs, radio-therapy and surgery, for the continuing care of patients have given hope and relief to many.
And may I say that the hospices for the terminal diseases have brought comfort to so many families and have eased the passing of so many patients. They are wonderful places. I would not believe they could have that marvellous atmosphere unless I had been to see a number of them.
The National Health Service has accumulated a tremendous fund of expertise and dedication to help make all the improvements which are widely available.
I also want to pay tribute to the marvellous work undertaken by the cancer charities who have invested so much in research and in pioneering new forms of care. Remarkable progress has been made not only into new treatments, but also in fundamental scientific studies such as molecular structure. These studies are having an important impact on our understanding of cancer. [end p3]
This morning, I want to emphasise just two messages:
First, the critical importance of early diagnosis and treatment. Treatment is most likely to succeed if the disease is detected early. We know, too, that those who do contract cancer can still be helped to lead a full life.
I spoke a moment ago about the fear of cancer. People do fear cancer and this can stop them from speaking about their fears to their doctor or to their family. That means they do not get the help which is on offer or they do not get it early enough. This year is about breaking the silence and overcoming that fear.
In this country, we have a full programme of events to that end at both national and local level and to help maintain the effort throughout the year I am happy to be able to announce today that the Government is making an extra £1 million available to the Health Education Authority in 1989, to enable it to expand its cancer prevention and education activities.
As you know, screening also plays a major part in cancer prevention and in the United Kingdom we can be really rather proud that we were the first in the Community to have launched a comprehensive cervical screening programme and the first in the world to set up a nationalwide breast-screening programme. Women aged between twenty and sixty-four—sixty in Scotland—will be invited for cervical screening at least every five years. Women aged between fifty and sixty will be invited for breast cancer screening every three years. [end p4]
Planning is now well advanced for the establishment of the breast screening programme in all parts of the United Kingdom by 1991.
My second point is that the way we live can often determined whether we put ourselves at greater risk of cancer and amongst other activities, the Health Education Authority will be expanding its advice against smoking and expanding its advice on healthy life-styles.
We also need to emphasise, particularly to young people, the message that smoking kills. About 95 per cent of those who die from lung cancer are smokers and for most the habit is acquired before adulthood.
I refer you to a piece of research done earlier this decade whose conclusion was that among an average 1,000 young adults who smoked cigarettes regularly, about six will be killed on the road—that is bad enough—but about 250 will be killed before their time by tobacco.
Lung cancer deaths among women are increasing each year and teenage smoking by girls is still increasing—and both these trends we must strive to reverse. [end p5]
I am pleased, therefore, also to announce a new £2 million a year campaign aimed at halving the proportion of teenagers who smoke over the next four years. It will be run jointly by the Department of Health and the Health Education Authority and I very much hope that these measures, together with all the other activities you will hear about today, will help achieve the substantial reduction in suffering and death from cancer which is at the heart of the “Europe Against Cancer” initiative.
Pooling together the findings of research into cancer across Europe and learning from each other which programmes and activities are best to prevent cancer, is an excellent example of Europe working together on those things we do better together than we could ever do alone and I know that the European Commission has undertaken a lot of hard work in drawing together a vast network of organisations and individuals into a common cause.
I am also deeply grateful to Sir David Innes Williams and his Steering Group for the efforts they have put into coordinating all of the events in the United Kingdom. The activities of this European Year are important to all of us. I am proud to be associated with it and wish it every success. [end p6]
May I say that I would like to stay for the whole of the morning. You will understand that there is rather a lot to do back at No. 10 and I am therefore only able to stay for the first Paper, but they have promised to let me have all the Papers so that I can read them, because it is not merely a duty for me to read everything on scientific work and prevention, it also happens to be a very great pleasure and, dare I say, sometimes almost a relaxation, to get back to the scientific work from the other kind of work which I do.
Thank you very much! (applause)