Transcript – Conference Closing Remarks

Vivienne Parry Writer and Broadcaster
Professor Jonathan Waxman President, The Prostate Cancer Charity

Vivienne Parry: Now we are nearly at the end of our day, but I have one further person to introduce. I introduced this gentlemen last year and I was rather astonished to read in the Biomedical Scientist, which is a scientist weekly kind of magazine, that he was the late Professor Jonathan Waxman. So I am delighted that the very much alive, kicking and all singing and dancing Professor Jonathan Waxman is here today. So please will you welcome the President of The Prostate Cancer Charity.

Jonathan Waxman: Thank you very much Vivienne. I can assure you that ghosts can dance. Ladies and gentlemen, it has been a very bad week for one or two politicians, but what a wonderful week it has been for prostate cancer. We started on Monday with the Prime Minister and the leaders of the opposition parties, and today we have had a fantastic and really heart warming conference. But it is only Thursday so what's going to happen tomorrow, John? We have got a lot of expectation for Friday - it's been a great week - can we do better? I hope we can.

There have been a number of key messages that have come from this conference, messages that are really to the heart. The first big message is that we are all together, we are together as patients, we are together as health professionals, we are together as charity workers. And that is one socking great thump for society. It means something that is really terrific and tremendous. We are not against each other. We are here together to make the cause work - to get things better for this disease.

Two - we had Chris Hiley 's presentation this morning which showed something quite important - that things are getting better for patients. We see 22% and 25% dissatisfaction with the process but we also see 75% and 78% satisfaction with health care, and that is a stunning change in the way that things have happened for patients. If we think back to 1996 it would have been absolutely the other way around with 80% dissatisfaction, with nobody being informed, with no discussion about what should happen and what would be best for patients with this disease.

The third really important message - and it's the message that you must all take home and act upon - and it's to do with the significance of advocacy. The more noise you make, the more people get unsettled in Parliament. The more people get unsettled in Parliament, the more you get what you want. Herceptin was prescribed without any NICE implementation process taking place for women with breast cancer because there is a lobby.

So I would urge you to remember that this is very important as part of the process of change. We have a listening Government. We have a Government that does respond. So go back home and - tomorrow is Friday - get on the phone and do something for yourselves and for people with prostate cancer.

So I close by thanking all of the speakers. What a wonderful conference. A nd thanking you all for taking part. It is really such a heartening thing to see. Thank you.

Vivienne Parry: So it is goodbye from him and now it is goodbye from me. I have to remind you that there is The Prostate Cancer Charity man outside which is not yet covered in stickers and he needs to be covered in stickers. So if you have not yet signed, please do that before you go.

Can I just remind you, for those of you who were at the last conference, I said that I thought that a window had opened for prostate cancer. All causes and conditions have a time when the moment is right, when they shine. This is the time that prostate cancer is shining. But you have only got a very limited time in which you can move that agenda forwards. I really do believe that prostate cancer has moved far enough now for you to be able to go that final mile. It has taken a long while to get here, but I think as John Neate said, the coals are now very hot and all it needs from you is a bit of judicious fanning and it will burst into flames and prostate cancer will become the success of this session of Parliament.

So thank you all for coming. Thank you for coming all the way from Cornwall, for the lady I spoke to who came from the west of Scotland, who in fact actually attributed her husband's recovery from prostate cancer, to the fact that she came last year and heard about robotic surgery and her husband has been much improved and is doing very well as a result of it.