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Rachel Reeves has joined hundreds of candidates across the country in signing up to Cancer Research UK's Cancer Commitment, aiming to make UK cancer outcomes among the best in Europe in the next ten years.

The Commitment promises to focus on detecting cancer earlier, providing world class treatment, preventing more cancers, tackling cancer inequalities and protecting the UK’s research base.

Rachel said: “I am commited to the fight against cancer, and will support measures designed to aid the early detection, prevention, and improved treatment of cancer if I am elected as an MP. Leeds West also suffers from health inequalities, and I will also support any measure which aims to reduce these.”

More than one in three people in Leeds West will develop some form of cancer during their lifetime. In the last thirty years, the UK’s 10-year survival rates have doubled but cancer survival rates still lag behind the best performing countries in Europe such as Sweden, Norway and Finland. Cancer Research UK is calling on Parliamentary candidates to commit now that if they are elected, they will help make cancer outcomes for patients in the UK among the best in Europe in a decade.

This Labour government has provided more progress on cancer than any other government in the last 50 years. From the Cancer Plan in 2000, which provided huge investment to the treatment of the disease, to the Cancer Reform Strategy in 2007 that enabled better prevention and awareness of cancer, this government has taken great strides in the fight against cancer. We also know that cigarettes contain over 90 cancer causing substances, which is why this government has also legislated to ban smoking in public places, remove cigarette vending machines entirely, and take cigarettes out of displays at newsagents and other shops. If re-elected this government will continue to fight against cancer, with measures like the cancer guarantee, which will guarantee that anyone suspected of cancer will be seen by a specialist within one week. This guarantee could save up to 10,000 lives per year.

For information on Cancer Research UK’s Commit To Beat Cancer campaign, visit: www.CommitToBeatCancer.org