A mother of three who lost her sister to breast cancer has launched a petition calling on the Government to set up a national taskforce to identify effective cures and treatments.
Lindsey Flynn has begun collecting signatures on the Petition Parliament website following the loss of beloved sister Stacey Chilcott, who grew up in the Black Country and was a mother of three young children at the time of her death in January last year.
So far 740 people have signed the petition. If the total number of signatures reaches 10,000 the Government will have to issue a response, while hitting 100,000 signatures will mean it is considered for debate in Parliament.
The petition page explains: “Breast cancer is the leading cause of death in women under 50 with 11,500 women dying every year in the UK. We want a National Taskforce approach similar to that taken to identify a vaccine for Covid, to be used to develop effective cures and treatment for Breast Cancer.
“The Government highlights its support for women, yet breast cancer remains an area where the approach to developing cures and treatment is fragmented and significantly under-funded.
“We want a new Government-backed Breast Cancer Taskforce established to drive additional investment and better collaboration with partners, to find cures and more effective treatment options for the many women who are diagnosed and suffer with this disease.”
Lindsey, age 39, says she wanted to spark a national debate about the provision of breast cancer services after losing her sister to the disease. Stacey, who was a mother of three young children, aged just four, three and two when she sadly died, grew up in Willenhall.
She attended Deansfield High School in Wolverhampton and studied at Aston University. Stacey went on to work as a leading public health scientist.
Lindsey said: “In an awful twist of irony, Stacey had achieved a PHD in cancer research whilst studying at Aston University and then later moved into a career with Public Health England.
“It was one year after the birth of her third child she noticed a lump and immediately went to get it checked out at the doctors. She was given the crushing news that she had Stage 2 Triple Negative Breast Cancer, and at this stage kicked all her science knowledge into gear, researching what were the potential treatment options.
“Her husband Rob, who is also a leading scientist, supported every step of the way, reading every single research paper on the subject. After an intensive schedule of chemotherapy, operation and radiation, Stacey thought that life was returning to some semblance of normality.
“However in August 2019 she was given the crushing news that she had Stage 4 Cancer and it had spread to her lungs. At this point again Stacey and her husband kicked in their research skills but were crushed to find there were very few effective treatment options available.
“They read every single paper, contacted every single potential open trial, but there were so few and with aggressive cancer, every week wasted is critical. Stacey came to the realisation she was going to die because there were no more available treatment options.”
Stacey passed away on 28th January 2020, just two days before her daughter’s fifth birthday, the celebrations for which she had organised in the final weeks of her life.
As her youngest sister Lindsey watched this all happen. While the family pulled together, they had to stand by and watch as Stacey accepted she would die because there were no treatment options left to try.
Lindsey, who is CEO of Wolverhampton-based leading skills company WELL Training and now lives in East Staffordshire, adds: “All we could do was surround Stacey with our love and be there to support her as much as possible. We are now determined that we as a society should not just accept that this cannot change.”
The online petition has been shared on social media to raise awareness of the issues and build support.
Lindsey said: “The drive to find vaccines for Covid showed what amazing strides can be taken when there is the political willpower and resources put in to achieve a public health goal. With breast cancer now the leading cause of death for women aged under 50 there will be hundreds of thousands of families like ours who have been affected.
“Through this petition we hope to spark a public debate about the provision. It has been tremendous to see such a response on social media and from the swift number of sign-ups, which we hope to build on by accumulating more support. We know how much pain we as a family have been through losing Stacey, we are fighting for a day when no one else has to lose their Stacey.”
To view the petition go to: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/580375.
A Facebook page has been created to promote the petition campaign: https://www.facebook.com/breastcancerpetition.
