Tessa Jowell, the former Labour minister who helped bring the Olympics to London, has been praised by MPs across the parties as an inspiration.

Before the debate began the Speaker, John Bercow, welcomed Jowell and her family to the gallery in a highly unusual intervention.

“I hope you feel fortified and inspired by the warm embrace of parliamentary love,” he said



Lady Jowell, who was diagnosed in May last year with a high-grade brain tumour, is now terminally ill. But she had come into the House of Commons to meet the health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, and his Labour opposite number, Jon Ashworth, to continue her campaign for better support, more research and better access to clinical trials for brain cancer patients.



Tessa Jowell: former Labour MP delivers moving speech on brain cancer diagnosis – video

Many speakers praised Jowell’s own speech in the Lords in January. James Brokenshire, the former Northern Ireland secretary who resigned to undergo cancer treatment early this year, said he listened to it while he was recovering from surgery to remove a tumour from his lung.

“What Tessa’s speech did was to focus on the human condition – what gives it purpose – and the overriding power of human kindness, compassion and love.”

One MP who worked with her on the Games, Sarah Jones, described her on Thursday as “a woman who walked through walls,” first to win the Olympics for London and now to improve care and treatment of patients with brain cancer.

Jones said Jowell’s speech talked of hope. “Hope for cancer patients across the world. That the revolution we need is close at hand. Hope that we can live well together with cancer, for longer, and not just die of it.”

Brain tumours are the biggest cancer killer of children and adults under the age of 40 in the UK, and across the population reduce life expectancy by, on average, 20 years. That is the highest of any cancer.

More than half of the 11,000 people diagnosed with a high-grade brain tumour will die within one year and less than one in five survive for five years or more



Jowell’s speech led to a meeting in February with ministers, cancer campaigners and charities where some of her objectives such as measuring improvements in the quality of life lived with cancer were agreed. Work is under way to improve access to data and analysis, and to improve diagnosis.



The meeting coincided with an announcement of £45m of research funding into brain tumours supported by Cancer Research UK and the Department of Health.

Steve Reed, the Labour and Co-operative MP for Croydon who knew Jowell as a councillor in south London, said she had always been a fighter. “Now she’s in the fight of her life. But how typical that she’s turned it into a fight to allow everyone to live well, to live better and to live longer,” he said.

At the end of the debate, with Jowell looking on, Sarah Jones read a note from the former MP thanking everyone for their love and support.

“It was the honour of my life to be one of you. I shall cheer on from the sidelines as you keep fighting the good fight. Remember our battle cry – living with, not dying from cancer, for more people.”