𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

I was drunk the last time I met Yvette Cooper. Not overly majorly drunk, just “a few pints after work drunk”. It was at Victoria Station in London, and it must have been at least five years ago. The encounter started with me spotting Stella Creasy and telling her she’s an amazing MP, mostly because of her refusal to take requests when she DJs and for how she sorted out an issue with her mum’s oven. After being reassured that I didn’t live in her Walthamstow constituency and wouldn’t be sitting on the Tube in her carriage talking about bin collections and pot holes, she introduced me to Ms Cooper.

We shook hands and said “hi”, and then I ran to get my train. These days, if I met her, the conversation would go very differently. The Daily Express scored a massive victory back in February when Wes Streeting announced the introduction of a personal cancer plan for cancer patients, ensuring they get the emotional and practical support they need to tackle the devastating disease.

This is something we’d been pushing for in our Cancer Care campaign for over a year, after my experiences with incurable bowel cancer led me to see that the support that should be there, sadly, isn’t.

And, for the Daily Express, the then Health Secretary Wes Streeting wrote: “Robert’s campaign, and the courage of Express readers who shared their stories, helped ensure we couldn’t look away from this reality.”

But now Andy Burnham is in Downing Street, and he’s selected Yvette Cooper to be the Health Secretary. So if I did meet her at a train station or on the streets of England, I’d do a lot more than say hi.

I’d explain to her that I’m worried that somehow the personal cancer plan will be one of the things from the last Government that gets forgotten.

I’d explain that I’m worried that all of the millions of cancer patients, and their families, who will be supported through the mechanisms in the cancer plan, will not get the help they need.

And I’d explain that while Andy Burnham is ripping up plans for the digital ID and planning to push more power away from Westminster, his Government must not forget the cancer patients.

Cancer doesn’t discriminate and doesn’t care whether the PM wears a black T-shirt or a suit and tie. Cancer will be out there 24/7, rain or shine or night-time, destroying the lives of people across the UK, so support is desperately needed everywhere.

So I hope I never have to have that conversation with Yvette Cooper.

I hope she sees the personal cancer plan as an important part of the work to improve people’s lives, which is, ultimately, what the NHS is there to do.

Hospitals are still committed to the personal cancer plan, and charities are still working behind the scenes to make sure it can happen, so hopefully it will all be fine.

But, at the moment, I’m as nervous as one of the nurses at my cancer hospital who is getting packed for the holiday she booked 18 months ago. What if something goes wrong? What if it doesn’t happen?

Holidays can be rebooked, and there’s travel insurance to sort any issues like lost luggage and missing a day trip due to diarrhoea.

But the personal cancer plan can’t be rebooked. There isn’t a moment to lose, and the Government, cancer charities, and the NHS need to continue working together behind the scenes to ensure it can be rolled out as soon as possible.