Radiotherapy UK Ambassador Naman Julka-Anderson has signed a powerful letter to the Prime Minister, urging Sir Keir Starmer to address health inequalities.
The letter was delivered to 10 Downing Street on Monday by actress and singer Victoria Ekanoye and Timi Okuwa from Black Equity Organisation, and urges action on behalf of black women with breast cancer.
It reads:
“Breast cancer is the most prevalent cancer in the UK, devastating women’s lives and costing an estimated £3.2-3.5 Billion to the UK economy every year. We are making impressive treatment advances as a whole. However Black women, along with other disadvantaged groups, are being left behind. Black women suffer from more severe forms of the disease, later-stage diagnoses, worse experiences of care, and lower survival rates. These disparities are not only a matter of life and death, but of social justice and economics.
“It is estimated that closing the inequality gap in breast cancer care will save 2000 lives each year, £1.6 Billion in wellbeing savings, and £180-250 Million in economic benefit every year.”
With four pillars of proposed action, the letter lays out practical ways of addressing severe health inequalities within cancer care, and references Naman’s research into radiation induced skin reactions:
“A survey of the therapeutic radiography workforce, for example, found that professionals were significantly less confident assessing, managing and teaching skin reactions from radiotherapy on brown and black skin, compared to white skin.”
Therapeutic Radiographer Naman has been a Radiotherapy UK Ambassador since 2020 and is co-host and co-founder of Rad Chat – a forward-thinking global knowledge hub.
Today he was presented with his Chief Allied Health Professions Officer Gold Excellence award by Professor Suzanne Rastrick OBE, for his work to address health inequalities.