I beg to move, That this House has considered the treatment of lobular breast cancer. It is a pleasure to see you in the Chair, Ms Vaz. I secured this debate in memory of my constituent, who was also my close friend, Heather Cripps.

I welcome Heather’s husband David and her sister Jenny to the Public Gallery.

I will come to Heather’s story shortly, but I also want to welcome to the Public Gallery my mother-in-law Cressida, who survived lobular breast cancer 22 years ago, as well as several others whose lives have been touched by lobular breast cancer.

Many of them have provided me with briefings in preparation for the debate, for which I am grateful. I met Heather in 2016 when, as someone who had pretty much never run for a bus before, I was roped into a free 5 km parkrun at 9 am on Saturday mornings in Dulwich park.

Heather was a serious runner, and running was a huge part of her life. She took pity on me and decided that her inexperienced local MP needed a friend to run with, and she became that friend.

We worked out that we lived close to each other, and it was not long before I was picking her up to go to the parkrun, and we would run together most weeks. Heather was a dedicated public servant, spending her whole life working in the Home Office.

It is a testament to her professionalism that she never spoke with me about the content of her work. What she did speak about as we ran was her family, her husband David and two precious daughters. Heather was an amazing mum.

She spent so much of her time thinking about what her girls would enjoy, planning birthday parties and holidays and, earlier this year, plotting a trip to Wales to culminate in the surprise collection of a new puppy.

In 2020, at the height of the covid-19 pandemic, Heather started to get terrible back pain. For several months this was treated as a musculoskeletal issue. She was given pain medication, but it got worse and worse. Eventually, she was diagnosed with stage 4 invasive lobular breast cancer.

The back pain was the result of the cancer having spread to her spine.

For three years, chemotherapy held the cancer at bay but, when Heather came to Parliament almost exactly a year ago to campaign on lobular breast cancer, she mentioned to me that she once again had back pain, which she thought could be the cancer recurring.

The hon. Lady brings forward a very personal story. In this House, we know that personal stories are always the hardest to tell, but the ones that have more impact. I commend the hon. Lady for what she is doing today. We would all say that, but we mean it.

I thank my hon. Friend for securing this debate on such an important topic, and for so movingly sharing the story of her friend Heather. I want to raise the case of my constituent from Dalgety Bay.

Just days before her surgery for lobular breast cancer, a mammogram was still unable to pick it up, exactly as my hon. Friend describes. It could not pick up the existence of her cancer at all. Does my hon.

Friend agree that this is a perfect example of why we so badly need more research and better diagnosis and treatment of lobular breast cancer for women across the UK?

I thank my hon. Friend for bringing the story of her constituent to this debate. This is exactly the reason why we need to find better means of diagnosis and treatment for lobular breast cancer. I will come talk about some of those means shortly.

Currently, there are no treatments specific to lobular breast cancer. This must change. The issues have been well documented by Dr Susan Michaelis, founder of the Lobular Moon Shot Project. Susan was 50 when she noticed a small, pale, 1 mm mark on her left breast in 2012.

She had no lump and both a mammogram and an ultrasound were reassuring. Six months later, the small mark had become redder and Susan had a biopsy that confirmed she had invasive lobular breast cancer. Susan’s cancer had spread to her neck, the back of her head, the eye area and her ribs.

She is now on her sixth line of treatment. Dr Michaelis is a qualified air accident investigator. She focuses on how accidents can be prevented by learning from past mistakes, and has used these skills to look at how treatments have failed her.

In doing so, she has identified the need for a new approach.

I congratulate the hon. Lady on securing this really important debate. Does she agree that specific forms of cancer like lobular breast cancer require specific funding, research and treatment, and that a one-size-fits-all approach is going to fail millions of women?

I declare an interest in asking this question in that last year I was diagnosed with lobular breast cancer. I am cancer-free now, thank God, as a result of the help of the Royal Marsden hospital. Tragically, that is not the case for many, many women in this country.

I thank my hon. Friend for raising this very important issue. I was diagnosed with, treated for and cured of breast cancer this year, in a very timely way. I was very grateful to be told that it was one of the best cancers to have, because there is so much research into it and treatment for it.

It is unimaginable that someone could be treated for a different type of breast cancer for which the research and treatment are not available. I am sure my hon. Friend will agree that this situation needs to be addressed immediately, because we cannot have these inequalities.

Lobular cancer should be on a par with other breast cancers in terms of treatment.

I associate myself with what we have heard in this very powerful debate. I commend the hon. Member for Dulwich and West Norwood (Helen Hayes), and I commend the family who are sitting in the Gallery. Cancer is a thief in many homes, and I commend them for their bravery. Does my hon.

Friend the Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) agree that, across the UK, we need more investment, more research and more clinical trials, and that it is for this Government to step into the breach and do just that?

I thank the hon. Lady for that really important point. She highlights another important issue affecting the health of women and children, and I agree with her. My hon.

Friend the Member for Dulwich and West Norwood spoke about women’s health overall, which is an important priority for this Government, as are these forms of cancer and the wider preventive agenda. That is another point that can be made on the change.nhs.uk website, which I will keep plugging.

The issues that have been raised on it by the public and staff are really interesting and informative. My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State has been clear that there should be a national cancer plan. The hon. Member for Wokingham (Clive Jones) made helpful points about that opportunity.

I will not take up his invitation for a meeting; his point would be better made by being inputted into the process with the organisations he is in touch with. That would help to shape the national cancer plan, which we can all buy into as a country.

The plan will include more details about how to improve outcomes for all tumour types, including lobular breast cancer, and ensure that patients have access to the latest treatments and technology.

We are now in discussions about what form that plan should take and what its relationship with the 10-year health plan and the Government’s wider health missions should be. We will provide updates on that in due course. I thank my hon.

Friend the Member for Dulwich and West Norwood for bringing this important matter to the House.

I want to draw the Minister’s attention to the point about guidelines. Will she consider speaking to the devolved nations and, in England, to NICE, about guidance on lobular breast cancer?

I thank everyone who took part in and attended this debate. Question put and agreed to. Resolved, That this House has considered the treatment of lobular breast cancer.