Eurocarers’ ongoing advocacy work in favour of informal carers of people affected by cancer

In the follow up of our previous cooperation with patients’ and professionals’ organisations in the area of cancer, Eurocarers is supporting a campaign asking to prioritise cancer-related complications and comorbidities, coordinated by the European Cancer Patient Coalition. Cancer-related complications and comorbidities are a highly significant, and in many cases fatal, burden on patients across Europe but are all too often neglected in policy and research. More attention should be given to cancer patients’ long-term well-being and quality of life, addressing the often-debilitating comorbidities and complications of cancer, both in terms of the disease itself and its treatments. An increasing population of survivors with needs for long-term follow-up care and management of comorbid conditions will place a substantial burden on health systems, as well as on informal carers who provide essential support to them.

A joint statement was recently published, including references to the need to support informal carers of people affected by cancer-related complications and comorbidities.  Read the joint statement here.

Cancer is set to become a top health priority for the next five years in the EU, with both the European Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen, and Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, Stella Kyriakides, having made clear that cancer will play a central role in their policy agenda and that the output will be an EU Beating Cancer Plan. In a powerful speech on the occasion of the launch of the Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan consultation period last 4 February, President von der Leyden asked:  ‘What about the son who needs to take care of his mother?´ Eurocarers will provide a detailed response to this question during the consultation process, stressing the various elements of support needed by informal carers, as described in Eurocarers’ Comprehensive Strategy for carer-friendly societies.