Tatton MP Ether has thrown her support behind an initiative to encourage anyone living with cancer, their family or friends to come together and share experiences as they exercise.
Wilmslow's 5k Your Way was launched in February on the back of growing interest in parkruns across the country and allows people to run, jog or walk the distance.
Tatton MP Esther McVey joined ambassadors Tony Collier and Sara Harris at the event on Saturday, 25th May.
She said: "I was honoured to have been asked to attend and was blown away by the event. Not only are people getting exercise, they are making friendships and can be supported by others who understand what they are going through.
"Tony and Sara are so passionate about the value of exercise and it is great that they stepped forward to be Ambassadors so the 5k Your Way could come to Wilmslow. I met a number of people who regularly take part in the 5k Your Way including Jacob who was diagnosed with cancer at just over a year old and is now in remission. He takes part on his dad's back and definitely stole my heart."
The organisers want to get as many people involved as possible and are hoping health care professionals will tell patients all about it. They said evidence shows how beneficial exercise can be for those living with and beyond cancer.
Mr Collier, who is a keen runner and secretary of Styal Running Club, has firsthand experience of how a cancer diagnosis can change your life.
He said: "I was always a fan of parkruns and the sense of community it brings. My life changed suddenly in 2017 when I went from running the Manchester and Paris marathons a week apart from each other to days later being told I had cancer. I firmly believe that staying fit and exercising regularly will help prolong my life and I am passionate about encouraging other to do the same."
Mr Collier visited a sports injury doctor as he believed he had strained his groin. Scans revealed he had prostate cancer and further tests revealed it had spread.
Mr Collier added: "I was given a worst-case prognosis of two years and had effectively gone from training for an ultra marathon to terminally ill in 36 hours. There are so many other benefits to getting involved in the 5k Your Way Move Against Cancer besides the excellent physical benefits exercise can bring. People have told me taking part has helped their self esteem and met new friends who understand the journey they are on."
The Wilmslow event, which is on the last Saturday of every month, was the first of its kind in the North West and regularly attracts around 25 atttendees all directly affected by cancer. As well as encouraging people who can to participate in physical activity, it provides a support network for anyone affected by cancer. After each event people who want to go for a coffee and chat.
Comments
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Her disastrous reign at DWP put cancer patients in severe financial distress when benefits of terminally ill people were cut.
McVey is one of the least worthy politicians to be associated with such a project.
Her lack of care and compassion for people with cancer evidenced by her track record at DWP and playing fast and loose with access to cancer treatment with her no-deal Brexit stands in stark contrast with the aims of the scheme.
When exactly did the Liberal Democrat’s stop being liberal?
Or democratic?
Surely it is up to this group to decide who they want to be associated with for publicity, not you.
Somehow, I doubt they are obsessed with Brexit as you are though because they have bigger things to worry about. Hence the whole point of the group.
Therefore, your comments are in staggeringly poor taste and do nothing to help them through their difficult time. You have only made it worse.
So if you have any decent liberal values left, then apologise to them for trying to make cheap political points at the expense of their good cause.
This disruption is one of the many prices that McVey is prepared for her constituents to pay for her political ambition.
To suggest that this issue is somehow not local or not relevant to Wilmslow and off limits for discussion, is deeply patronising to people whose lives are impacted by cancer.
You really have no shame then.
For the record, the heads of Dover, Calais and Eurotunnel have all said they will operate smoothly post EU (whatever the outcome).
So stop trying to scare vulnerable people. It doesn't help this group through their cancer treatment nor add anything to the debate about what our future relationship with the EU should be.
It's just despicable.
https://www.eurotunnel.com/uk/brexitandbeyond/
https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-calais/calais-port-boss-expects-little-disruption-from-a-no-deal-brexit-idUKKCN1P31LO
https://news.sky.com/story/port-of-dover-prepared-for-brexit-but-appeals-for-government-help-11608983
Attempting, yet again, to silence debate on this important issue is typical of your behaviour but it won’t work.
Unlike you, I am happy to debate important issues publicly but it’s probably best that you and Cllr Chapman debate with a little less open hostility.
It is deeply patronising for you to claim that discussion of the impacts of a no-deal unplanned Brexit will have on those affected by cancer is not for public consumption or that they should be shielded from ‘grown up’ talk of the reality of the hard brexit you support.
Ferry companies are not responsible for obtaining isotopes, specialist medication and diagnosis equipment and recruiting international specialists for research into treatment and new drugs.
Show me a UK organisation involved in cancer treatment and diagnosis or healthcare that believes that there will be no disruption. That’s a direct challenge and if you can’t then do the decent thing and admit it.
McVey is indeed being disingenuous and your attempt to label Oliver as a scaremonger when the risks to cancer patients are very real truly is despicable.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-47462762
I am happy to discuss Brexit but my anger is that there is a time and a place to discuss it but this was neither. Morals and decency are like comedy though. If you have to explain them, then there is not much point.
Therefore, I will not go into the detail as to why you are wrong because if after 3 years of preparation for Brexit you still think it is "unplanned" then I am clearly wasting my time.
Well done to the organisers for successfully running the event. I hope to participate myself in the near future.
Oliver, I agree with you. This is hypocrisy at its best. She never misses a photo opportunity while ignoring issues such as homelessness and child poverty caused by her policies (Universal Credit).
Please have a read of this article on how no deal Brexit will cause cancer test delays.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/uk-47462762
Parliament is about to break up for the Summer recess leaving just a few weeks of parliamentary time before October 31st. The evidence is clear from swathes of the medical profession that a no deal brexit will have an immediate and long lasting impact on the availability of diagnosis, treatment, drugs and research.
The real moral question is how Esther McVey can be so cavalier with people's lives and why, given the seriousness, local councillor are angrily attacking someone for raising the duplicity of our local MP and starting a discussion about the impacts of brexit on cancer treatment and diagnosis.
I didn't want to bring this up, but given Cllr Goldsmith's unabated personal attacks on my character and morality, I feel I need to put my cards on the table.
I lost my father to cancer two years ago. I have another direct relative who is terminally ill with cancer. I have supporting them this week.
I am angry that McVey and others are prepared to slam the door on our membership of the EU in a few weeks time with no consideration for those undergoing diagnosis and treatment for cancer and other conditions. However, I hope to keep my contributions calm and respectful.
People are welcome to disagree with me and share evidence where they think I am wrong. Making unwarranted, angry and personal attacks on the character of those who you don't agree with is unlikely to be the best way to make a point whether it is right or wrong.
However, lets be clear, attempts to censor residents will never work.
Esther McVey does not represent the wishes of the majority of residents. Her Dirty Brexit will see cancer patients and many, many others in this area and across the U.K. suffer.
It’s a very serious issue, those affected by cancer are not objecting to discussing these issues openly. They don’t want to be kept in the dark and residents have a right to know about and debate the damage McVey is attempting to unleash on this country.
I do not agree that discussion about a Dirty Brexit will result in suffering. Indeed, it may be quite the opposite, they may appreciate that people do care about the damage McVey will do if her plans are not stopped.
That said, whilst I don’t agree with your sentiments, which in themselves are political point scoring, I am pleased that they made without the personal abuse we witnessed earlier in the discussion.
And Mark, if you consider that the last three years of Westminster behaving like squabbling under-fives, when planning and statesmanship is required, in any way indicates that Brexit was or is 'planned' or even being planned for, you are indeed wasting your time.
To bring this back on subject, a McVey-type crash-out of the EU will seriously impact cancer sufferers as my BBC link above (since repeated by Ribia) indicates. That disingenuous stance by McVey is why Oliver raised the valid point he did.
She could have supported this group without turning it in to the ‘Esther show’. This story is all about Esther from top to bottom.
The good work of this group would have been featured if they did not have McVey taking all the limelight.
I believe you understand the damage that McVey's and other Dirty Brexit Tory leadership contenders will do to the country and its people and I note that you do not defend them.
That said, please do not think that you can control who says what and where on this website to suit your own politics. I am not trying to stop you from making comments (unless they revert to the personal insults seen earlier in this discussion), please do me the courtesy of not attempting to control when and where I and other residents voice their concerns.
I don’t want to keep repeating myself, so I will refer you to my earlier comments about attempts to close down discussion.
Perhaps this is an opportunity to talk about how people affected by cancer prefer to be described?
A poll carried out by a breast cancer charity found that being described as a ‘victim’ is almost universally disliked by those who have been diagnosed.
You can read about it here: https://www.breastcancercare.org.uk/about-us/news-personal-stories/battling-brave-or-victim-why-language-cancer-matters
Let’s stop labelling those affected by cancer as victims and think about them as fellow humans who might want more than platitudes from those who serve them.
I can see that you are back ‘on message’ regarding brexit. The disaster brexiteer that is McVey who you stated represents a minority of Tories and whose plans you said your membership will thwart, is now deemed a ‘first class’ mp. Seems our discussion is being noticed.
In your reply to me (above) you have the temerity to speculate on both my political affiliations and my reasons for commenting.
For reasons that I don't wish to share with you, cancer, it's causes and it's treatment are issues that I have an interest in.
The subject matter of the thread is the "5k My Way" initiative which looks like a great idea designed to support cancer sufferers and their families.
As far as I'm concerned, if our local MP publicly supports the initiative, that's a good thing.
There may well be a debate to be had around the way in which political parties seek to fund the NHS and/or the effect that Brexit might have, but I (and obviously others) really don't think this is the place.
McVey is now planning on suspending Parliament in order to callously slam the door on the EU and leave cancer patients without secure access to drugs, treatment and diagnosis. You only have to look at the car industries loss of 25% production with the last brexit date to see the damage that will be done. The car industry doesn't use isotopes that degrade by 20% per day.
Oliver, you deliberately attacked this group to score a cheap political point. So, yes I still think your action was deplorable. I’m sorry your relatives have cancer, but this just makes your comments even worse. You know the distress cancer causes but didn’t care you were adding to it. You only cared about peddling your propaganda. For the record, both my father and father-in-law died from cancer and my mother has survived it twice, so I speak from experience too.
The BBC article your supporters scrambled to find doesn’t validate you either. Read past its lurid headline and it only talks about what MIGHT of happened in March 2019 if ANY Brexit had occurred. It does not cover a 'No Deal' in October 2019, with 7 months more planning. Its only fact is the Royal College of Radiologists advised cancer specialists to "Keep [your] workload lighter for the first week following a no-deal Brexit”. Presumably, they can have a heavier workload the week before to compensate. Everything else in the article is pure conjecture, so none of it justifies your comment “no deal WILL leave cancer patients without access to vital medication, treatment, equipment and expertise”
Vince, you seem adamant there is no Brexit planning. However, Oliver claimed in his recent election leaflet that £4 billion had been "wasted" on emergency Brexit planning. So which one of you is right? For a far more balanced view read what Cancer Research UK say:
https://scienceblog.cancerresearchuk.org/2018/08/30/no-deal-brexit-what-the-governments-plans-could-mean-for-cancer-treatment-care-and-research/
It was written in September 2018, so the issues it raised are now likely to have been addressed from the £4 billion Brexit planning Oliver said was "wasted".
Oliver, you are no longer just a keyboard warrior, free to peddle your propaganda with impunity. You are now hold public office, so have a duty to check your facts before you try to distress to vulnerable people.
I see you offer nothing to back up your lurid claims then.
Nothing.
Just to repeat, you said "no deal will leave cancer patients without access to vital medication, treatment, equipment and expertise".
Your claim was deliberately designed to scare cancer patients and their families and you have provided no evidence to support it at all.
Instead you have tried to bluster your way out of it. Your latest attempt is to claim I am obsessed with you. I will just add this to your long list of ways you have tried to deflect blame for your lies.
So, you are going to stick to your lies then. I guess you have come too far to back down now. Okay, but it shows you lack integrity or morals though. Your fake indignation and false sense of moral superiority will never hide the fact you deliberately lied to try and scare cancer patients.
I will let others decide if they find that appalling or not though.
I don’t really care what you think
and I can put up with your angry attacks on just about anything I do or say. That’s just your brand of hate politics and anyone reading these comments will understand you for what you are.
I do, however, recommend you think twice before publishing any further defamatory personal attacks against myself or anyone else.
Thanks for supporting the Brexit the MAJORITY voted for.
xx