Bereaved sister's call for breast cancer taskforce - BBC News

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Stacey Chilcott with her three children at the Black Country Living Museum

A woman whose sister died from breast cancer is campaigning for the fight against the disease to be given the same energy as the hunt for Covid-19 vaccines.

Stacey Chilcott, from Willenhall, West Midlands, had a PhD in cancer research.

She was 40 when she died two days before her daughter's fifth birthday; the little girl blowing out candles with the help of aunt, Lindsey Flynn.

Mrs Flynn is now calling for a national taskforce to help end the illness.

To that end, she has launched an online petition. It will need 10,000 signatures by September for the government to issue a response to its demands.

"It isn't right what happened to Stace," Mrs Flynn said. "But with the pandemic, you see what can be achieved when we all pull together.

"Why can't we apply this to one of the biggest killers of young women?"

Mrs Flynn said her sister, who died in January 2020, was told there was no treatment available for her type of cancer, and that she independently researched a number of clinical trials and none were successful.

She said: "We seem to be content to accept so many mums, daughters, sisters and nans dying."

According to figures from Cancer Research UK, there are about 11,500 breast cancer deaths each year domestically.

Treatment is improving and patients have a 76% chance of surviving for 10 or more years, the charity says - double the rate it was 40 years ago.

It declined to comment on the petition, but said: "The Government and NHS leaders must also think long term and provide the investment needed to transform cancer survival in this country.

"This means significantly investing in more staff and kit so that the NHS can provide all patients with life-saving diagnosis and treatment and give them the best chance of surviving their disease."

Stacey with her two sisters, Lindsey and Lianne

Mrs Chilcott had two other children, aged four and five.

"Stacey was desperate to have children," said Mrs Flynn from Staffordshire. "They were the best thing that ever happened to her."

She said it was the children who have helped the family get through the coronavirus pandemic while still grieving.

BBC Action Line: Help and support if you have been affected by cancer

"We all made the promise to Stace that we'd keep things as normal as possible," said Mrs Flynn, explaining why there was a little girl's birthday party so soon after the death.

"Her mum should have been there," she said, adding that when she realised how many other mums had missed their children's birthdays because of breast cancer she felt she "needed to do something".

"The pandemic has shown if there's enough resource and will behind it, we can do anything.

"Why can't we have that laser focus on this issue affecting women? How can we lose so many Staceys and not push for more [to be done]?"