Campaigners are calling for urgent action to close the “gap” in cancer care to give all patients an equal chance of survival. There are approximately 200 types of cancer , with the ‘big four’ of lung , bowel , prostate , and breast accounting for more than half of new cases of cancer in the UK. Medical professionals are very aware of the signs and symptoms of the ‘big four’ so refer to specialists quickly so treatment can begin.
This is seldom the case with rare cancers, with sufferers often fighting for months or years before they receive any kind of diagnosis. And by the time they are diagnosed the cancer has often spread far beyond where it started. This is what happened to Dave Howard, who is originally from Liverpool and now lives in Manchester.
He has a very rare neuroendocrine cancer which started in his small intestine, and then progressed to his liver. It has now also spread to his lymph nodes and his bones. For four years doctors sent him away as they just said he had a food allergy.
The father-of-two said: “If it had been picked up sooner, they could have stopped it spreading all over my body, and now I'm inoperable and incurable. “It's so hard to diagnose this condition because not many people know about it. “They're extremely amazing, GPs, and they've got vast more knowledge than what I've got, so I can't really say anything, really.
[Maybe I’d say] just look at the bigger picture. “Definitely not the mental health side, or maybe even just s.