You may have seen in the news that during yesterday’s debate on Education maintenance allowance I accidentally interrupted my own speech with a musical tie. The video, for anyone who hasn’t seen it yet is below. I had been asked to wear the tie for a photo at Beating Bowel Cancer’s 1,2,3 campaign launch event and knowing that I was going to be speaking in the chamber I decided to leave it on to help raise awareness. What they hadn’t told me was that it was a musical tie and as I buttoned my jacket after standing to begin my speech I inadvertently set it off. It seems to have garnered a mass of attention from the media, unbelievably across the world (http://bit.ly/gNDxml http://bit.ly/eljcUP) and has certainly raised a fair bit of awareness for Beating Bowel Cancer. Whether their plan was to convince an unsuspecting MP to wear their tie into the chamber in the event this would happen is something I couldn’t possibly comment on. If this has done anything though I hope it has raised some awareness of this country’s abysmal track record on Cancer survival rates, especially compared to our European neighbours. With Bowel Cancer, as with many others early detection is key, but even though everyone between the ages of 60 and 75 are sent screening tests in the post the uptake is only 54%, Beating Bowel Cancer have calculated that a 100% uptake would save 1,279 lives a year. The coalition government made its choice, to cut the deficit not the NHS. We made this choice to deliver better outcomes for patients: earlier diagnosis; better and faster treatment and lives saved. That’s why this month the government was able to launch its Strategy for Cancer. A programme backed by £750m of funding over four years which amongst many other things includes funding for 1,200 extra cancer specialists and £60m of funding to roll out new Bowel Cancer screening technology. On top of this we also have the £200m a year cancer drugs fund to ensure that people get the drugs they need. As it’s created so much interest I’ve decided the only thing to do with the tie is to auction it off, and obviously all of the proceeds will be going to Beating Bowel Cancer. The auction is already on ebay here.