At The Dear Toby Trust, our mission is to find kinder cures and we are thrilled to see the government finally making this a national priority.
Here are a just some of the positive (and meaningful) government commitments:
🦁Research into “kinder” treatments: a core research priority is the development of “personalised treatments” that cause fewer side effects and have long-term impacts, specifically focusing on gentler treatments for young people.
🦁The Travel Fund: the government will provide up to £10 million per year to cover travel costs for children and young people (CYP) with cancer and their families. This is intended to ease the financial burden on families travelling to one of the 13 specialist Primary Treatment Centres in England.
🦁Neighbourhood health services: CYP needs will be embedded into the new “neighbourhood health services” ensuring that multi-disciplinary teams (MDTs) have a lead paediatrician to discuss complex cases.
🦁Clinical trial access: To close the gap for 16-24 year olds, the government will require clinical justification for age limits on trials and work to increase trial visibility and recruitment.
🦁Specialist diagnostic support: Every child who has suspected imaging for cancer will have their report reviewed by a paediatric radiologist. Primary care clinicians will also have 24/7 telephone access to consultant paediatricians for urgent advice.
🦁Psychological support and care: The plan commits to standardised age-appropriate psychological support during diagnosis, treatment, and long-term follow-up.
You can read the full plan here
