Responding to yesterday’s National Cancer Plan release, Dr Helen Spoudeas, on behalf of Success Charity, said:
Success Charity warmly welcomes the NHS Cancer Plan’s explicit commitment to restoring life chances for children and young people with brain tumours, at a time when four in five are now cured. The plan’s recognition of the need for dedicated neurorehabilitation support, including a named keyworker to coordinate a multidisciplinary recovery pathway from diagnosis through long-term follow-up, represents a significant and long-overdue step forward.
For too long, the acquired brain injury experienced by this group – first clearly identified more than 20 years ago – has been misunderstood as an unavoidable late effect of treatment, rather than a condition requiring active rehabilitation. The plan’s commitment to holistic, standardised psychosocial care, educational access, and neighbourhood-based multidisciplinary health surveillance across the lifespan offers genuine hope that childhood brain tumour survivors will no longer miss critical recovery opportunities.
If delivered effectively, these measures could finally enable survivors to experience not just survival, but a brighter and more independent future.
