Tag: cancer

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If you didn’t already have enough reasons NOT to vote for Scottish Labour how about this cancerous threat?

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Professor John Robertson OBA In the Telegraph today, the above and: Ed Miliband has pledged to start immediate work on building new nuclear power stations in Scotland if the SNP is kicked out of office in next year’s Holyrood election. That’s a clear threat then. To what? First, increased child leukaemia: I asked the Elicit AI for scientific research which claims to help researchers be 10x more evidence-based: How dangerous is it to live 5km from a nuclear power station? After more than 5 minutes, it responded: Studies show mixed results on living within 5km of nuclear power plants, with some European research finding … Continue reading If you didn’t already have enough reasons NOT to vote for Scottish Labour how about this cancerous threat?

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Risk of dying from cancer falls by 11% in Scotland and performance leads that in England so Express headline story to claim we’re ‘lagging behind England’ today is a disgusting piece of lying propaganda and fake news to undermine SNP

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Support Talking-up Scotland’s work to counter the lies and get you the facts, daily, at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/checkout/help-talking-up-scotland-tell-truth-about-scotland/payment/nBQxjVzq/details Professor  John Robertson OBA The Daily Express today has a front page of awesome dishonesty, of an order that a Nazi propagandist might have baulked at: SCOTLAND LAGS ‘SERIOUSLY’ FOR CANCER TREATMENT I’ve no idea who said ‘SERIOUSLY’ but I doubt their reliability. As the Express leads, low IQ-style, with the total number increase, Here are the facts about that: First, the RISK of dying from cancer in Scotland fell by 11% From the Public Health Scotland report which the Express has based its distortions … Continue reading Risk of dying from cancer falls by 11% in Scotland and performance leads that in England so Express headline story to claim we’re ‘lagging behind England’ today is a disgusting piece of lying propaganda and fake news to undermine SNP

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Scotsman’s confusion on cancer scanning ignores major progress

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Professor John Robertson OBA The Scotsman‘s David Bol, today, has a frontpage masterclass in confusion. It seems to be about one NHS nurse claiming she’s had to go private for some unspecified cancer ‘check‘ and who is warning that ‘someone could die‘, presumably from delay in that ‘check‘. Before you can ask what the cancer in question is, so that we might look at the published figures, Bol charges straight into a piece about the apparent problem of cervical cancer screening uptake not hitting the 80% target. So, if there are delays in the cancer ‘check‘ this one nurse has … Continue reading Scotsman’s confusion on cancer scanning ignores major progress

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Why is there a ‘cancer ticking time bomb’ only in Scotland where radiologist staffing is highest in UK?

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stewartb What of the ‘cancer time bomb’ that is headline news in several newspapers in Scotland and above the BBC News website’s ‘Scotland’s papers’ feature and also in a separate BBC Scotland article on the the same website? This has all been catalysed by the following Royal College of Radiology (RCR) reports: (i) ‘Clinical Radiology – Workforce Census 2024’ and (ii) Clinical Oncology – Workforce Census 2024. Both reports cover all four nations of the UK although one would be hard pressed to realise this from the newspapers front pages. One would not know of the UK-wide scope EVEN after careful reading the BBC Scotland … Continue reading Why is there a ‘cancer ticking time bomb’ only in Scotland where radiologist staffing is highest in UK?

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US doctor sees a trend in young St. Louis cancer patients living near nuclear waste sites to remind of Scotland’s highest cancer death rate in Europe just downwind and downstream of Sellafield

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Professor John Robertson OBA From Fox News yesterday: ST. LOUIS – A St. Louis doctor is looking into cancer rates across the region, trying to figure out why he’s seeing more younger patients.  One of his younger patients was Dre Bergeson, a loving wife to her husband, Darryl, and mother to their 8-year-old son, Finn.  “She was kind, compassionate, and loving, always thinking about everyone else but herself, even through the diagnosis,” Darryl Bergeson said. He said Dre began having heartburn and pain in August of last year. She had a CT scan in September. “There was a large mass … Continue reading US doctor sees a trend in young St. Louis cancer patients living near nuclear waste sites to remind of Scotland’s highest cancer death rate in Europe just downwind and downstream of Sellafield

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How NHS Scotland repeatedly has and can help NHS England patients

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Professor John Robertson OBA In the Independent yesterday, the above, and: Enhertu is the first licensed targeted treatment for patients with HER2-low breast cancer that cannot be removed surgically or that has spread to other parts of the body. Patients are usually offered chemotherapy, but Breast Cancer Now explains the targeted drug could offer people more time to live in comparison. Enhertu was approved for use in Scotland in December 2023 but was rejected for use on NHS England in March 2024 by the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (Nice) because it was too expensive. In September 2023, 84 patients have to … Continue reading How NHS Scotland repeatedly has and can help NHS England patients

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How the Scottish Government is supporting improved cancer care – but shamefully this is not being reported by ‘your’ media

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By JB Some positive things you will not be allowed to read about in the ‘Scottish’ media. Funding for projects to benefit patients and clinical staff. A total of £1.5 million funding in 2024-25 is supporting 12 projects to continue providing direct and personalised support to patients with cancer. Over £1.5 million will support 12 pilot projects across Scotland to deliver a single point of contact to people diagnosed with cancer. All of the people living within NHS Lothian, NHS Borders, NHS Dumfries and Galloway, NHS Fife, NHS Forth Valley, NHS Ayrshire and Arran, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, NHS … Continue reading How the Scottish Government is supporting improved cancer care – but shamefully this is not being reported by ‘your’ media

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How Orkney islanders fought off a lung cancer risk, nearly 100 times the normal rate

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Professor John Robertson OBA Many thanks to Frances McKie for alerting me to this. In 1975, not much reported at the time, as far as I can remember, the residents of the Orkney Islands faced and fought off a dark threat. From Beyond Nuclear International in April 2021: The Orkneys were being surveyed for a potentially valuable deposit of uranium ore. The South Scottish Electricity Board had already persuaded local farmers, unaware of the health risks, to allow bore hole drilling on their land. By 1977, the entire local population on Orkney opposed uranium exploitation there. Among those opponents was … Continue reading How Orkney islanders fought off a lung cancer risk, nearly 100 times the normal rate

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Labour Freedom of Information request on cervical cancer with figures edited and used to scare by omitting the wider facts

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Professor John Robertson OBA I used to teach Research Methods to BA Journalism students. Nice kids with ambitions to helpfully inform readers. I worry for them now. Corporate and state media care little for informing, seek only to attract readers with scares and titillation and, must surely damage the mental health of those who work within. First, that claim – Wait times for cervical examinations increase in all but one health area since 2019 – is based on a Labour Freedom of Information request with the results edited to pick out this negative example and fed to uncritical media but … Continue reading Labour Freedom of Information request on cervical cancer with figures edited and used to scare by omitting the wider facts

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NHS Scotland’s ‘excellent ovarian [and other] cancer services across Scotland’

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Professor John Robertson OBA The Express today, rehashing a Record story on February 13th 2025, has the sickly headline: John Swinney shamed over NHS failures to treat Scottish women with ovarian cancer It’s nonsense. The facts, first on all cancers: In the Guardian on 3 February 2025: More than half a million people in England have had to wait longer than two months for essential cancer treatment, analysis of latest NHS figures has shown. It has led experts to suggest thousands more patients will die unnecessarily unless the NHS gets to grips quickly with the delays. Analysis of new NHS figures by Radiotherapy UK shows that in the … Continue reading NHS Scotland’s ‘excellent ovarian [and other] cancer services across Scotland’