Mark Lawler, Associate Director of Postgraduate Studies, Chair in Translational Cancer Genomics, and Professor of Digital Health at Queen’s University Belfast, shared a post on LinkedIn:
“Today is one of the proudest professional days of my life as Simon Harris and Robert Troy introduce the Right To Be Forgotten (RTBF), whereby cancer survivors cannot be discriminated against financially because of a previous cancer diagnosis.
I have worked tirelessly with Irish Cancer Society over the last 5 years, providing the evidence base to support their campaign, and publishing the evidence in high impact journals like The Lancet Oncology and BMJ.
In a recent meeting with Minister Troy, Catherine Ardagh TD TD (who has been a brilliant advocate for RTBF and led the initial work in the Senate and the Dail) and the Irish Cancer Society, I presented the crucial evidence (in my role as Chair of the International Cancer Benchmarking Partnership (ICBP)) that persuaded the government to opt for 5 years rather than 7 years post successful (which had been their original intention), thus opening up the opportunity for more cancer survivors to benefit.
But I’m not finished yet. Cancer Knows No Borders – Neither Should We – We’ve started a campaign in Northern Ireland, Cancer Focus Northern Ireland and partners, in the first stages of a pan UK campaign.
Now that we are on the cusp of introducing the Right To Be Forgotten in Ireland, as announced by An Tanaiste Simon Harris and Minister Robert Troy today, and based on the evidence that we provided, let’s remember the simple fact – Cancer Knows No Borders!
So we need to do the exact same thing here in Northern Ireland, otherwise we are discriminating against cancer survivors in the north compared to the south – one island but two ways of treating cancer survivors. So join us in our campaign to avoid financial discrimination against cancer survivors.”
Other articles featuring Mark Lawler on OncoDaily.