Conservative MP Hails NHS After Beating Lung Cancer

26 February 2018, 09:53

James Brokenshire praised the NHS after revealing that he has overcome lung cancer.

The Conservative MP stepped down from his position as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland in order to fight the disease in January.

And he wants to raise awareness that it's not just smokers who are at risk from lung cancer.

He said: "I had one single incident in the autumn where I cleared my throat and seen there was some blood in my tissue. It only happened once, but it was enough to make me think this was out of the ordinary."

After a number of scans, he had a gastroscopy, where a camera is threaded down your throat, and that discovered a small cancerous tumour. He needed an operation to remove part of his lunch, which made him decide to step down from his Ministerial role to focus on recovering.

"I was lucky because I found it early," he said. "I had amazing NHS treatment to take me all the way through this.

"They have been absolutely incredible. I could not have been in better hands."

Mr Brokenshire was never a smoker and wanted to raise awareness among the public that it's not only smokers who can contract the disease.

He added: "There are over 46,000 cases of lung cancer each year and 15% of those are in non-smokers.

"There is stigma and people forming judgements. If someone is going through cancer, people shouldn't in some way be saying that it's your fault in some way.

"And yet there is some of that out there."