Dame Deborah James’ family has written an urgent letter calling for action to ‘give cancer patients more time with their loved ones’

But for years, Brits were subjected to a postcode lottery when it came to bowel cancer screenings.

In Scotland, screening starts at age 50.

However, in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, people had to wait until they were 60 to be invited to take life-saving tests.

That’s why, in April 2018, The Sun launched the No Time 2 Lose campaign – led by the late Dame Deborah James – calling on the Government to lower the screening age to 50, a move that could save around 4,500 lives annually.

In the summer of 2018, Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced that screening in England would be reduced to 50 – marking a victory for The Sun and campaigners.

In April 2021, NHS England began gradually reducing the age range starting at 56.

The rollout will be phased over four years to include people aged 50 to 59.

In Wales you are invited if you are aged between 55 and 74, and in Northern Ireland people still have to wait until they are 60 to receive an invitation.

Each of the UK’s bowel cancer screening programs uses home tests called faecal immunochemical tests (FIT).

Dear party leaders,

Across the UK, many families, like ours, are all too familiar with how devastating cancer can be.

Deborah was 35 when she was diagnosed with bowel cancer in 2016. To the world she was known as ‘Bowelbabe’, a proud advocate for those affected by cancer.

She smashed the stigmas surrounding cancer and was a passionate advocate for the importance of early diagnosis.

She would tell anyone who would listen ‘check your poop!’.

To her loved ones, Deborah was also a wonderful daughter, mother, wife, sister and friend. We miss her every day and are so proud of her legacy and that she was created a Dame by Prince William shortly before her death in June 2022.

Deborah’s inspiring work continues through the Bowelbabe Fund for Cancer Research UK.

Created to support projects she was passionate about, the Fund supports cutting-edge research into early detection and personalized medicine, raises awareness of the signs and symptoms of bowel cancer, and combats taboos.

So far, the Fund has committed more than £10 million to projects that we know will make a vital difference.

It’s an honor to continue what she started.

Today, during Bowel Cancer Awareness Month, we are joining Cancer Research UK’s call to ‘Longer, better lives: a manifesto for cancer research and treatment’ for the Government to publish a long-term cancer strategy for England within a year of the general election.

What we want and need to see in this cancer strategy are more measures in place that promote earlier diagnosis and reduce inequalities in access to treatment and care.

This means increasing the NHS oncology workforce and increasing investment in vital diagnostic equipment to ensure everyone who needs it can access the right test, in the right place, at the right time.

Diagnosing cancer at an early stage saves lives.

However, there has been little improvement in the proportion of bowel cancers diagnosed at an early stage in recent years.

In England, if bowel cancer is diagnosed early, around 9 in 10 people will survive the disease for five years or more. This becomes about 1 in 10 when diagnosed at the latest stage.

Too many people wait too long to be diagnosed due to a fundamental lack of capacity in diagnostic services, particularly endoscopy, which is a vital diagnostic test for bowel cancer.

NHS staff are doing their best, but the reality is that our health service does not have the resources available to care for cancer patients in a timely manner.

NHS England aims for 75 per cent of patients who are referred urgently to have cancer diagnosed or ruled out within 28 days.

This has not yet been achieved for lower gastrointestinal cancers (which include the intestine). The most recent data shows that, if it had been fulfilled, in February 2024 alone, around 3,800 more people would have discovered in time if they had cancer.

And the challenge only increases.

Earlier this month, the Bowelbabe Fund for Cancer Research UK highlighted that the number of people diagnosed with bowel cancer is expected to rise from around 42,800 per year to around 47,700 by 2040.

That’s why we’re calling on all political parties to make the next general election a landmark moment by committing to a long-term cancer strategy for England, helping to give more people affected by cancer more time with people that they love.

Unfortunately, we are not the only ones as a family to lose a loved one too soon to cancer. Many families across the country feel the same suffering every day. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

People affected by cancer must be at the center of these general elections. We hope you agree.

Best regards,

Alistair James, Heather James, Sebastien Bowen, Ben James and Sarah Wieczorek

Family of Dame Deborah James