Emma McClarkin MEP’s success with raising breast cancer care

East Midlands MEP Emma McClarkin has today welcomed the European Parliament adopting a Written Declaration on the fight against breast cancer.

This means that as majority of MEPs signed up to support the principles set out in the Written Declaration, which calls for the following:

•      Member States to implement nationwide breast screening, in accordance with EU guidelines

•      Member States to provide multidisciplinary specialist breast units in accordance with EU guidelines by the 2016 deadline

•      Member States to ensure that people with metastatic breast cancer have access to, and are treated in, a specialist breast unit (SBU) and that their ongoing needs for care and psychosocial services are co-ordinated and supported by the SBU, as per EU guidelines

•      The European Commission Initiative on Breast Cancer (ECIBC) project to deliver an accreditation protocol for breast cancer services by 2016

Every year over 50,000 women in the UK and over 361,000 in the European Union are diagnosed with breast cancer, with over 11,000 women in the UK and over 91,000 women in the EU dying of the disease. Early diagnosis through population based mammography screening programs together with care and treatment in specialist breast units improves both mortality and quality of life.

Miss McClarkin, who was one of the original co-authors of the Written Declaration, and whose mother died of the disease, said:

“This declaration serves to remind MEPs and inform new MEPs that these still need to be implemented equally in all countries across the EU, and I’m very glad it has been adopted by the Parliament.

“Its adoption is a significant step forward, and this must now be taken up at a national level if we are to beat this terrible disease, which takes such a toll on so many women and their families.”