Offer cancer patients exercise on NHS, major charity urges
Cancer patients should be offered yoga, tai chi and Nordic walking as part of their NHS care to boost their chances of survival and stop tumours returning, a major charity has said,Maggie’s, which operates 27 cancer support centres across the UK, is urging NHS bosses to “embed” exercise into the care offered to the 386,000 Britons diagnosed with the disease every year,Making physical activity available to patients would lead to them needing less care from doctors and nurses, and save the health service millions of pounds a year, it says,The charity is urging Wes Streeting, the health secretary, to include what would be a major change in NHS practice in the forthcoming national cancer plan to improve cancer care in England,“We know that cancer doesn’t end when treatment does.
If the national cancer strategy is serious about boosting survival it must look very closely at targeted exercise programmes, particularly with the number of people with cancer growing year on year and more than 6 million new cases predicted by 2040,” said Laura Lee, the chief executive of Maggie’s.The suggestion comes as it emerged the cancer plan, which was due this autumn, has been postponed until “early in the new year”.Ashley Dalton, the public health minister, confirmed the delay at health questions in parliament last Tuesday.Ed Davey, the Liberal Democrat leader, both of whose parents died of cancer, warned the delay to the plan – originally promised by the Conservatives in 2022 – “will cut short the lives of patients who are waiting far too long for treatment”.Michelle Mitchell, the chief executive of Cancer Research UK, recently voiced the same fear.
There was no time to waste in taking long-discussed and urgently needed action to improve what are – by international standards – England’s low rates of early detection of cancer, she said.New research commissioned by Maggie’s from York University into its own experience of providing exercise sessions shows it improves patients’ sleep and mental health, and reduces their pain.The charity put on 13,000 sessions a year across its 27 centres as part of its “prehabilitation” for cancer patients.They include yoga, tai chi and Nordic walking, as well as gym classes and gentler chair-based exercises for those with limited mobility.The call for such activities to be routine in the NHS comes after a landmark study in June found that physical activity can cut the risk of cancer patients dying by a third, stop tumours recurring and can be a more effective treatment than drugs.
“So often people with cancer think they can’t exercise while going through treatment but through our centres realise that staying active is possible.People leave our sessions feeling empowered,” Lee said.“Our classes may begin as exercise sessions but they also help people maintain good physical and mental health as well as quickly evolving into support groups.”World Cancer Research Fund said physical activity becoming part of standard NHS cancer care was a good idea and backed by strong evidence that patients benefit.“We strongly welcome Maggie’s call to embed exercise and prehabilitation into NHS cancer care and urge the UK government to include this recommendation in the upcoming national cancer plan for England,” said Kate Oldridge-Turner, the charity’s head of policy and public affairs.
“The scientific evidence is clear that being physically active not only improves treatment outcomes and survival for people living with cancer but also reduces the risk of developing cancers of the colon, breast and womb and others related to obesity.”Prof Peter Johnson, NHS England’s national director for cancer, did not indicate if the service would start routinely providing exercise but wants to help patients be more active.“There is growing evidence of the benefits of physical activity for people affected by cancer and our specialist teams across the country are there to help patients at each stage of their care, including supporting them to be as active as possible before, during and after treatment,” he said.“The NHS is working closely with government on the upcoming national cancer plan to reform services and drive further progress in early diagnosis, survival and patient experience, and we have asked local cancer leaders to explore ways to support their patients to take part in physical activity.”
Reform MP’s remarks about TV adverts were ‘racist’, says Wes Streeting
Wes Streeting has accused the Reform UK MP Sarah Pochin of making racist remarks after she said seeing adverts full of black and Asian people “drives her mad”.The health secretary said Pochin was “only sorry she’s been caught and called out”, adding she had “said the quiet bit loud”, as he warned of a return to “1970s, 1980s-style racism”.Streeting’s comments went further than Labour’s official remarks from the party chair, Anna Turley, who on Saturday night condemned Pochin’s remarks and said Reform was “more interested in dividing our country than uniting it”, but stopped short of explicitly calling the comments racist.On Friday, Pochin, who is Reform UK’s MP for Runcorn and Helsby, complained that “every advert” seemed to feature “black and Asian people”, as she responded to a viewer on TalkTV who had complained about the demographics of advertising.Pochin, 56, said the viewer was “absolutely right”, adding: “It doesn’t reflect our society and I feel that your average white person, average white family is … not represented any more,” blaming the “woke liberati” in the “arty-farty world”
‘We have to book bigger rooms’: Green membership surge causes novel problems
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Companies that donated to Labour awarded £138m in contracts, study finds
Companies that have recently donated to Labour were awarded contracts worth almost £138m during the party’s first year in government, according to research that raises fresh concerns about the relationship between political donations and public spending.A report by the thinktank Autonomy Institute has identified more than 100 companies that have given money to political parties and then won government contracts, under both Conservative and Labour administrations.The study follows a previous investigation by the Guardian that revealed how companies linked to Tory donors had been given billions in public funds since 2016.The new analysis shows the pattern has continued under Labour, with eight companies that donated more than £580,000 to the party receiving government contracts worth nearly £138m within two years of their donation (between July 2024 and June 2025).Looking beyond a two-year window, the thinktank found 25 Labour-linked companies had won contracts worth £796
Labour’s new deputy leader says party must pay more heed to its members
Labour’s new deputy leader, Lucy Powell, has said the government must listen to its members instead of being guided by a “narrow group of voices” as it battles to stave off electoral disaster in next May’s local elections.Powell defeated the education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, in the deputy leadership contest, which concluded on Saturday. She said she had been given “a clear mandate that members want their voice to be heard at the top of the party”.The Manchester Central MP won 54% of the vote, polling 87,407 votes, while Phillipson received 73,536. Turnout was just 16
Labour’s new deputy leader Lucy Powell says she wants Starmer to succeed but party must change – as it happened
Lucy Powell was sacked from Keir Starmer’s cabinet in September and has indicated she will refuse a return to a government role so she can speak more openly about the direction of the party in office.She has insisted she wants to “help Keir and our government to succeed” but the party “must change how we are doing things to turn things around”.In a final message to supporters earlier this week she said Labour had to be “more in touch with our movement, and the communities and workplaces we represent, more principled and strategic, less tactical, and strongly guided by our values”.This live blog will be closing shortly. Thank you for reading the updates
‘History is repeating itself’: fight against far-right in London’s East End goes on
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