daviee

Sat here watching the Channel 4 program on " Stand Up To Cancer "Trying their best to raise circa £7million to fight this heinous disease, This takes the lives of around 35.000 Brits a year and will probably affect everyone on this forum in someway. £7million is loose change to the government. What do they actually spend on cancer research out of the science budget of £4 billion ? Would be nice to see the UK Government match or double anything that's raised.

mikeblackett

I agree, more should be done by the government, I lost the mother in law to cancer a few months ago, then 1 month later my younger sister got breast cancer. The disease is so indiscriminating affecting the young and old.
But that's our government all over, giving billions a year to other countries when they should be investing in our own countries needs.

Midlife......

iTrader: (2)

In clinical terms, cancer services come first above all others, probably equal to heart disease and closely followed by mental health. These are NHS priorities because they kill people.........

If you get a head and neck cancer diagnosis here where I work there is a huge team spread across the North West of England to get the best for you, about 40-50 people in all from Consultant surgeons to people who take the moulds to hold your head still for x-ray therapy.

You might have to travel to other centres for treatment but the cost is huge and bourne by the taxpayer. Not perfect but as a percentage of GDP and free at the point of delivery it works most of the time...

Shaun

mikeblackett

Don't get me wrong, the care cancer patients receive is second to none, but the government needs to do more in terms of investment and not just for cancer. And lets not forget about the men and women who care for these people with life threatening illnesses

Martin2005

We spend over £80 billion a year on the NHS.

Should we just ignore the rest of the world?

mikeblackett

They say the NHS is overstretched so £80 billion clearly isn't enough.
And no we shouldn't ignore the rest of the world just reduce what we give.
But to be fair cancer is the topic, surely if the cancer research depends on donations from the public then more can be done by the government ?

Martin2005

I agree but the money we spend overseas isn't necessarily the issue, theres plenty of places I'd cut spending first

mikeblackett

This is true there are many issues, And I am sure everyone here has got an opinion on what the government should do regarding its spending. All we can do is moan about it and hope they listen.

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

Yes.

Paben

iTrader: (5)

Sorry to be cynical, but the cancer 'industry' is huge, supporting millions of jobs worldwide and making billions of dollars for the drugs companies. Were a genuine cure be found would it be welcomed or suppressed?

markjmd

iTrader: (11)

I'm not sure I'd be quite as cynical as this, but it's undeniable that billions are spent annually on cancer research, even without charitable donations.

The other point I'd make is that evidence is increasingly pointing to the fact that once aging is ruled out as a factor (something none of us can do very much about), a large proportion of cancers have preventable lifestyle causes (smoking, being overweight and exposure to HPV being the main 3), and no amount of research funding will make any difference to those.

Midlife......

iTrader: (2)

IIRC the Medical Research Council budget is about half a billion pounds of taxpayers money.

Shaun

hodgy0_2

I believe most childhood cancers are survivable now - thanks to the wonders of modern medicine and the fantastic treatment available

And it is now quite rare to die of illness and disease before 60

so not all doom and gloom

warrenm2

It should also be pointed out that as research progresses, it becomes more clear that "cancer" is a catch all title that actually covers wide variations in disease. Even amongst one class, say lung cancer, there are so many different sub classes that you have to target treatments much more carefully than we originally thought. This also explains why some treatments have patchy results, the underlying disease is different enough to effect outcomes

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

This. Cancer is a over-simplification of a complex disease with numerous types of conditions. Much like having the "flu" or a "cold" (which is caused by countless differing types of viruses and infections).

i.e Breast cancer is not Pancreatic cancer, and even that is a simplification.

To cure it with a wonder drug sounds simple.....but if we (well, some of us) are genetically coded to get cancer (or be prone to it), we're talking about genetics, and going as far as changing our own DNA to stop our own cells mutating. Can we change our DNA? Not yet. But if we did and it was allowed to be "doctored", surely we open the doors to creating a master race. Gattaca springs to mind. Scary.

That said...stop foreign aid and plunge it into our NHS...Yes. Without a shadow of a doubt. That extra money could actually help with new cures and care of many ailments which the world would benefit from.

urban

iTrader: (1)

Absolutely - stop foreign aid, and look after our own first and foremost.

Martin2005

Ebola?

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

Close all links with their countries.

dpb

I think it would be incredibly cruel not to want to help out those affected by that particular epidemic

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

If we ploughed the money we waste on foreign aid into the NHS and research, we might find a cure.

But hey, let's keep chucking money at countries that don't need it, and throwing it at heads of state so they can have gold plated Rolls Royces.

Let's keep as many Africans as we can, alive, as they continue to breed as fast as thery can.

Then What?

shytorque

Yes ,put up the fences.
Lets stop all manner of" Dross" entering this country and bleeding it dry.
If you have nothing to offer ,then go somewhere else.

Time to look after our own ....
Seriously.
IMO.

neil-h

You must be new here

Moley

iTrader: (9)

It's not just foreign aid that is wasting the money, it's an issue here with the NHS.

Our local hospital is 10 minutes away from Gatwick Airport. According to a nurse friend who works there they are inundated with sick people who travel here to use our health service.
They are getting off the plane half dead, getting straight into a taxi, and going to the hospital.
A few weeks later when they are better they get back in taxi straight to the airport and fly home.

markjmd

iTrader: (11)

I'm far from keen on the idea of spending large amounts of money abroad unnecessarily, but that's still a very big might. Remember that cancer isn't a UK-only disease, and it's certainly not only in the UK where cancer research happens, so when you look at whether extra money put into research would help find a cure you have to take into account how much funding goes into it globally. If you do that, you'll realize that the US spends 5 times as much as we do on it (roughly the same amount per capita), and has been for the last 3 or 4 decades. Measured against that, our foreign aid budget doesn't really add up to much.

daviee

Sad thing is that the funding in the US it is for a hidden agenda if some cancer cure were found they would be rich people benefiting as well as sick people. The drugs, pills or treatment would be costly in the first few years to cash in or as they call it getting their funding back and then some. The US is a business end of, nothing for nothing.

wrx300scooby

This should be stopped now!! We need to look after those who pay into the system and tell the rest to **** off.

Martin2005

So children, disabled and unemployed are going to have '**** off' ..they're on their own?
This place gets madder by the day

Martin2005

Good to see you showing the spirit of William Pooley ... BTW he's worth 10 of you.

You have some truly disgusting views

shytorque

NO we stop letting them in though,
born here we will look after obviously.
Stop letting all manner of sh*te in to bleed us dry!!!

hodgy0_2

What's ironic is that people "not giving a fvck about people from Africa", complain about southern politicians not giving a fvck about the north of England

There is a common theme here, I wonder if they know what it is