The founder of News from Nowhere bookshop joined a silent vigil outside the Department of Health in London today calling for more action to combat a little known but common form of breast cancer.
Mandy Vere was one of the 66 women who took part in silent vigil to highlight the women affected by Lobular Breast Cancer and bring it to the attention of the public, media and members of parliament. Campaigners are seeking £20m in research funding to help tackle the disease.
Ms Vere said: “The idea is to make a big splash in the media, the campaign has already sought the pledges of MPs… so far 463 MPs pledged to support it and that is the biggest number of MPs ever, bipartisan, across all political parties pledging to support a campaign.”
Twenty-two women stood outside each of Downing Street, the Department of Health and the Department of Science and Industry for a 22 minute silent vigil. Lobular cancer makes up 15% of all breast cancer diagnoses, with 22 women in UK diagnosed every day.
After a routine mammogram in 2023, Ms Vere received a call that there was a concern and invited her in for further tests where she diagnosed with lobular breast cancer, which she had previously not heard of.
“I was fortunate in that at every stage of things, the advice was that I could have the lessor of the options, so it was a lumpectomy rather than mastectomy, it was one breast rather than two and there was nothing to be found in my lymph nodes,” said Ms Vere.
However, there has been very little research into lobular cancer, also known as ICL (invasive lobular cancer), which behaves very differently than ductal cancer, which is the most common form of breast cancer.
Ms Vere said: “I discovered that there was no specific research been done on lobular breast cancer, very little, and so there are no treatment protocols based specifically for it, it’s a different disease, hence I’ve got a bit involved with the campaign.”
“Lobular breast cancer is really hard to detect; to diagnose, it often evades the usual diagnostic tools”
Last year the Lobular Moon Shot Project met with Wes Streeting and Chief Scientific Advisor – Lucy Chappell and said they would help by trying to draw down funding; however, they didn’t commit to find the £20 million needed for the research.
Ms Vere said: “I’m sure there is a lot of pressure on the NHS, but its peanuts compared to the amount the NHS is having to spend on treatments for women who have been diagnosed too late.”
All the 66 women met together after the vigil to sing ‘You will never walk alone’ before heading over to parliament for a drop-in session to talk to MPs about the campaign.
At Prime Minister’s question time today the MP for Bromley and Biggin Hill, Peter Fortune, asked Sir Kier If he would commit to the £20 million. The Prime Minister replied: “I will make sure this is looked at to see what further we can do, and if any relevant meetings are set up.”
Ms Vere was disappointed with Starmer’s answer. She said: “Starmer’s response is woefully inadequate. The time for ‘looking into this further to see what we can do’ is long past. The research needs funding from the public purse and it needs it now.”
