In September 2025, OUTpatients brought together 16 leading cancer organisations to write to the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, urging him to ensure that marginalised groups are named and accounted for in the Government’s National Cancer Plan.
We are pleased that, in response to our letter, the Government has explicitly committed to looking at protected characteristics in the Cancer Plan. While they have previously spoken about inequalities relating to socioeconomic status, this is the first time we have seen a written commitment to addressing inequalities relating to protected characteristics in the National Cancer Plan.
This is a positive step towards equitable cancer care for all, and we look forward to seeing how the Cancer Plan will take us there, together.
You can read our letter and the Government’s response in full below.
Thank you to our co-signatories for supporting the call for justice in cancer care:
- ALK positive
- Black Women Rising
- Bowel Cancer UK
- BOPA
- Coppafeel
- Ellen MacArthur Trust
- Fruit Fly Collective
- Movember
- National Voices
- Orchid
- Out with Prostate Cancer
- Ovacome
- Less Survivable Cancers Taskforce (Pancreatic Cancer UK)
- Robin Trust
- Shine Cancer Support
- Trekstock