MLAs and Councillors pledge support for NI Cancer Strategy and Cancer Prevention at the 2024 Alliance Conference
MLAs and Councillors pledged support for the NI Cancer Strategy and Cancer Prevention at the 2024 Alliance Party Annual Conference, held this Saturday 2 March at the Stormont Hotel.
Cancer Focus Northern Ireland attended the conference as a voice for local cancer patients. The charity’s exhibition focused on the local support services available for people impacted by cancer, on how to reduce individual risks of cancer, and on how the Party could better promote healthy living and cancer care. As part of the exhibition, Cancer Focus NI asked the elected officials to pledge to support the NI Cancer Strategy, which identifies opportunities to improve cancer care but has been sitting largely unimplemented since its launch in 2022.
Speaking about the conference, Richard Spratt, Chief Executive of Cancer Focus Northern Ireland, said:
“Our mission as a charity is to support local people on their cancer journey and to work to reduce the risk, impact, and outcomes of all cancers. MLAs and Councillors have direct contact to their constituents and can help raise awareness of the cancer support available and also on how to reduce individual cancer risk, through their engagements. At the same time, they can create the legislative environment that promotes healthy living, from enforcing sunbed legislations to reduce melanoma risks to enabling the resourcing of the NI Cancer Strategy. The political conferences are opportunities to directly engage with our elected officials on these issues, and we are glad to have been able to discuss them with Alliance Party representatives over the weekend.
“At the Conference, we also asked MLAs and Councillors to pledge to support the funding and implementation of the NI Cancer Strategy, ensuring delivery on cancer prevention and research objectives to enable better outcomes in the future. 13 MLAs, 17 Councillors, and MP Stephen Farry signed the pledge. We need this Strategy to be fully implemented to start seeing essential improvements to cancer prevention, speed to diagnosis, patient support, and more. The signatories’ commitment is especially important in light of the latest comments from Health Minister Robin Swann MLA on the Strategy, which continue to show a lack of urgency around cancer in NI.
“We are encouraged that so many Alliance representatives share our concern around the NI Cancer Strategy and the state of the health system in NI. We hope that they will turn their words into action to help mobilize delivery on the NI Cancer Strategy, waiting time reduction efforts, and more. We will be here to support them every step of the way.”
The full list of elected officials that signed the Cancer Focus NI “Cancer Commitment” is:
- Stephen Farry, MP
- Connie Egan, MLA
- Danny Donnelly, MLA
- David Honeyford, MLA
- John Blair, MLA
- Kate Nicholl, MLA
- Kellie Armstrong, MLA
- Nuala McAllister, MLA
- Patrick Brown, MLA
- Paula Bradshaw, MLA
- Peter McReynolds, MLA
- Sian Mulholland, MLA
- Sorcha Eastwood, MLA
- Stewart Dickson, MLA
- Cllr Aaron Skinner
- Cllr Andy McMurray
- Cllr Chelsea Harwood
- Cllr Christine Bower
- Cllr Claire Kemp
- Cllr David Bell
- Cllr Gretta Thompson
- Cllr Jack Gibson
- Cllr Jay Burbank
- Cllr Michelle Guy
- Cllr Nancy Eaton
- Cllr Nicola Parker
- Cllr Peter Lacery
- Cllr Robert Logan
- Cllr Ross McMullan
- Cllr Sharon Lowry
- Cllr Tara Brooks
MP Stephen Farry and MLAs engaging with Cancer Focus NI at the Alliance Party Conference 2024:
