Labour peer given standing ovation for moving speech in House of Lords about her brain cancer

Tessa Jowell has received a standing ovation in the House of Lords for a moving speech about her brain cancer in which she urged peers to support an international initiative to share resources, research and new treatments.

The former Labour culture secretary, who is seriously ill with a high-grade brain tumour, spoke to a packed house about the importance of “a community of love” for people suffering from cancer.

Jowell argued that health systems around the world must do more to cooperate with each other through the Eliminate Cancer Initiative, an organisation that links patients and doctors around the world through a clinical trials network, and is also building a global database to help improve research and patient care.

Peers broke parliamentary protocol after the speech to give the Labour peer a long standing ovation.

“For what would every cancer patient want? To know that the best, the latest science was being used – wherever in the world it was developed, whoever began it,” she told peers.

“What else do they want? They need to know they have a community around them – supporting and caring. Being practical and kind. For while doctors look at the big picture, we can all be a part of the human-sized picture.

“Seamus Heaney’s last words were Noli timere, do not be afraid. I am not afraid, but I am fearful that this new and important approach may be put into the ‘too difficult’ box.

“But I also have such great hope. So many cancer patients collaborate and support each other every day. They create that community of love and determination wherever they find each other.

“All we now ask is that doctors and health systems learn to do the same. Learn from each other.”

Jowell, 70, told the House of Lords about her cancer diagnosis last year. On Wednesday, she told Radio 4 that she was travelling to Germany for cutting-edge immunotherapy treatment.



“On 24 May last year, I was on my way to talk about new Sure Start projects in east London. I got into a taxi but couldn’t speak. I had two powerful seizures. I was taken to hospital. Two days later, I was told that I had a brain tumour, glioblastoma multiforme, or GBM,” she said.

“A week later the tumour was removed by an outstanding surgeon at the National hospital in Queen Square. I then had the standard treatment of radio- and chemotherapy. To put it in context, across the country, GBM strikes less than 3,000 people in England every year. It generally has a very poor prognosis.”

She closed her call for greater medical cooperation by saying: “In the end, what gives a life meaning is not only how it is lived, but how it draws to a close.

“I hope this debate will give hope to other cancer patients like me, so that we can live well with cancer, not just be dying of it. All of us. For longer.”