I'm a cancer patient – we need to talk about biggest side effect being ignored

With a face like mine I was prepared for comments saying I was too ugly for TikTok when I launched a series of videos to coincide with the Daily Express’s Cancer Care campaign. My 19-year-old self might have disagreed but 26 years on, and with a big pink face ravaged by the effects of two years of cancer treatment, I'd now agree on most days. But, six months after launching the campaign to try and get the NHS and the Department for Health to ensure all cancer patients get access to mental health support both during and after treatment, there are two comments I've received that I want to address.

Thankfully, instead of being about my appearance, they focus on wider issues about how we treat patients in the UK. The issues highlighted are ones that the Government must tackle in its 10-year plan for the NHS if it is to stand a chance to improve the system for everyone, not just those fighting cancer.

In response to one of my personal pieces about how I'm doing my best to battle incurable bowel cancer, one commenter wrote: "Mental health support isn't the solution – a functional caring professional medical team is what's needed."

They then explained that they had survived cancer, with treatment including lung surgery. Firstly I'll say that I was delighted to read they are now an "ex-cancer patient". Nothing makes me happier these days then learning about survival stories.

But I wonder whether people who say "mental health support isn't the solution" realise what is meant by the phrase, and why we are running the campaign.

It isn't about being referred to a clinical psychologist who specialises in helping people with cancer, though that treatment option needs to be available.

It also isn't about being referred to a support group to meet other people who have the same condition, though that treatment option needs to be available.

It is about medical teams recognising that mental health issues are the biggest side effect of cancer treatment so support to tackle them should be at the core of everything they do.

Without it I'd argue that there is no such thing as the "functional caring professional medical team" that the commenter refers to.

The second commenter posed a very similar question to one a friend asked me back in January, about why the campaign is just focused on cancer patients when there are so many people with other terminal and long-term illnesses that need mental healthcare.

They also asked where all these mental health professionals are going to come from when there already aren't enough staff to support people who are in crisis.

Sadly that is very true. And the sad truth is that over the years governments from both sides of the political spectrum haven't done enough to help people with mental health issues.

It seems they all think it's something they can sweep under the carpet whereas they prioritise cancer patients.

I'll probably be dead before any government in the UK recognises the need to put mental health support at the heart of all medical treatment. But I hope to still be around to see the Cancer Care campaign as a springboard in that direction.

For it to be such a thing we need your help, so please sign the petition so politicians in the House of Commons discuss this important issue and act now to help people today and future generations.