One Year, Four Million Children #VaccinesWork

It is almost impossible to believe that it was a year ago that a small group of us travelled to Mozambique with Save the Children, to highlight the desperate need for child vaccines.

Thanks to the wonderful Liz Scarff and along with Chris Mosler and Lindsay Atkin, I was privileged to see first-hand, just some of the work being done to save millions of children's lives. 

Mozambique is an incredible place but after a history that left the country wracked with deprivation and poverty, so many people there are fighting the odds.  Unfortunately, children are among the worst affected; Mozambique has one of the highest infant mortality rates in the world and most of those deaths are from easily preventable diseases.

A year ago, we were using Twitter and other social media, aiming to #passiton, to highlight the need for world leaders to commit funds at the GAVI Summit, in London.  The summit took place exactly one year ago today (June 13th) and saw $4.3bn pledged by the UK, the Gates Foundation and countries from around the world.

This plugged the gap that had developed in the funding and risked the very existence of GAVI's programme of vaccination.  In real terms, it meant that 4 million children's lives were saved.

Looking to the future, it now means that 8.5 MILLION children in up to nineteen countries, by the end of the year, will be protected against preventable childhood illnesses, such as pneumonia and diarrhoea.  Tragically, these diseases are to blame for almost a third of all child deaths across the globe.  That statistic will now change; children will be saved, thanks to the world leaders pledging these vital funds.

Save the Children scrutinised every pledge, making certain that every world leader stepped up to the plate and kept their promise.
Justin Forsyth, Chief Executive of Save the Children said:

“Commitments made at summits are often treated with a healthy dose of scepticism. But our research shows that one year on from the London Vaccines summit, every single donor has kept their promise.

“We believe that in the last 12 months, up to a million children could have been saved by this UK-led initiative, showing the power that life-saving aid can have. The Prime Minister and Secretary of State for International Development deserve real credit for their leadership on this.”

What is essential now, is for us all to make sure this issue remains in the spotlight.  So that children in developing nations get the same standards of health care that we are fortunate to take for granted for our own children.  Whilst our children are just a short trip away from a Doctor or hospital should they get ill, children in countries like Mozambique are often days away from medical assistance.  This is why vaccines are so essential for these children.

I am incredibly proud to have been part of the #passiton campaign and even more proud of what we achieved - reaching millions of people and making sure the issue became a globally recognised issue.  Remember, #VaccinesWork!

You can see my video diaries of the trip, produced in Mozambique by the very talented Mike Sunderland, for ITV and We Are Barnsley, here and here.  My blogposts, written during the trip, are available via the below links:

#Passiton - Mums in Mozambique


Into Africa; Barnsley to Mozambique


Have Vaccines Will Travel


No Child Born to Die

Stats, Tears and No Context from the BBC

With the Leveson Enquiry looking at responsibility of the media and how this has been neglected, one would think that those who bring us the news would be taking it a bit more seriously than usual. Yet, this morning, BBC Look North made me angry. Very angry.

Claire Frisby read from her autocue that St James' Hospital researchers had been looking into recurrence rates for Macmillan. The video report then told us, with absolutely no context or qualification that ONE IN FIVE women with breast cancer will have a recurrence and of those, only FIVE PERCENT will live for ten years.

This was some of the most irresponsible, breathtakingly thoughtless, lazy reporting that I have ever seen regarding cancer.

The study showed that of 1,000 women who were first diagnosed with the disease between January 1999 and March 2002 22.6% suffered a recurrence. These are the actual study statistics:

• 1,000 patients were studied, all were diagnosed between 1999 and 2002 in Leeds.
• 54 patients could not be followed up. 
• 214 of the remainder (22.6%) suffered a recurrence of their breast cancer.
• All 214 were free of the disease for an average of 39.9 months before it came back, and they survived for an average of 17.9 months after being diagnosed for a second time.
• 51% of the women had lived disease-free for at least three years.
• 5% of the 214 women survived for 10 years.

Such blanket reporting of crude data statistics gives a cruel, dark snapshot of just a small part of the story. 

• What was the age range of the women, the mean age? How many of them would have lived ten years or more anyway?
• What type of breast cancer did they have - ER+, HER2, etc?
• What grades were the cancers?
• Where were the recurrences located - local, regional or distant?

All of these elements have an ENORMOUS impact on treatability and survivability of breast cancer.

These are statistics for women who were diagnosed ten years ago, when treatments were very different to today.

For the BBC to tell women, that if they have a recurrence, that they have only a 5% chance of survival, probably had many breast cancer patients in tears over their cornflakes today; it certainly did me.

The BBC ignored the fact that Cancer Research UK has warned that the figures in this study are "crude and unhelpful" and has said that they should not be taken as an accurate figure for breast cancer sufferers across the UK as a whole.

Credit: DAN DUNKLEY/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

Prof Peter Johnson said: "The chance of cancer coming back for any particular woman is influenced by several factors such as whether they have passed the menopause, the size and grade of the tumour, whether it has spread to lymph nodes and whether it has hormone receptors, so crude figures for large numbers are not helpful to individual women. In fact, for many women the chance of cancer coming back is much lower than one in five."

Another cancer charity, Breakthrough Breast Cancer, said the study was "a useful first step towards knowing how many breast cancer patients might experience a recurrence of their disease. But Dr Rachel Greig said that further studies from other parts of the UK were needed "before we can accurately say what the true rate of breast cancer recurrence is nationally."

The important issue is that treatments today are much better at treating and managing breast cancer, whether primary, recurrent or metastatic.

When I was worrying about survival statistics, after my recurrence was diagnosed, I found this and screen captured it - unfortunately I cannot remember the wise website that featured it, but I read it every time I come across a frightening statistic. 

Statistics Do Not Tell the Whole Story

If you talk to your doctor or do your own research about metastatic breast cancer, you will probably hear or read different statistics that talk about survival rates and mortality (death) rates.

Reading or hearing information like this can be discouraging and even frightening. Remember that you are not a number or statistic, and what happens to you in the course of your breast cancer journey is not dictated by statistics.

There are many reasons why the statistics you read are not accurate predictors for you. For one, some of the numbers are based on older treatments that may not have worked as well.

More importantly, metastatic breast cancer is characterized by wide variability of survival, and so averages mean less. You may well be one of the outlivers who do well for extended periods of time.

While your medical providers may give you some statistical information regarding your particular type of breast cancer and survival, no one can determine with absolute certainty how you will respond to treatment or how your cancer will progress.

Don’t give up, and don’t let a statistic you find in the course of doing research or talking to your doctors rob you of hope.

Hope is so important and positivity vital. Today, many women fighting this dreadful disease, will have had that shaken by the BBC.

Thanks to The Guardian for quotes.

UPDATE: 13 June 2012

I received a message from Tim Smith, Editor of BBC Look North this morning, with a link so that I could watch the evening edition of the programme from yesterday.

I am delighted to include this update to say that the reporting of this news story in the evening bulletin was absolutely spot on.  The statistics were reported with context and the points I mentioned above, regarding the issues that affect survival and newer treatments being more affective were all included in the report.

Much better! I also have to give credit to Christa Ackroyd for her sensitive approach and empathy when presenting this story and the interviews that were included.