{"id":654961,"date":"2026-10-15T00:02:20","date_gmt":"2026-10-15T00:02:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/654961\/"},"modified":"2026-10-15T00:02:20","modified_gmt":"2026-10-15T00:02:20","slug":"archie-goodburn-thanked-as-ministers-announce-plans-to-improve-brain-cancer-care-the-irish-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/654961\/","title":{"rendered":"Archie Goodburn thanked as ministers announce plans to improve brain cancer care \u2013 The Irish News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Scottish swimmer Archie Goodburn has been thanked for his efforts to improve brain cancer care for patients after his campaigning led to the Government announcing a package of measures to enhance care.<\/p>\n

Goodburn, who was diagnosed with an oligodendroglioma when he was 22, met Prime Minister Andy Burnham on Wednesday after making an emotional appeal for more action on brain tumours.<\/p>\n

After the meeting the Government announced a review of brain cancer progress since 2018 and promised action to get patients new treatments sooner.<\/p>\n

\"ScottishScottish swimmer Archie Goodburn met Prime Minister Andy Burnham and Health Secretary Yvette Cooper to discuss brain cancer care (Hannah Mckay\/PA) <\/p>\n

Officials also announced plans for a national brain cancer clinical lead \u2013 a key plea from Goodburn during an emotional appeal on BBC Breakfast earlier this year.<\/p>\n

\"Bryan<\/a>\"Man<\/a><\/p>\n

Experts said that the measures mark a \u201cgenerational shift in how brain tumours are seen and addressed in the UK\u201d.<\/p>\n

Goodburn, now 25, has been thanked for his \u201ctireless efforts\u201d in raising awareness of the disease.<\/p>\n

The review will be led by Professor Anthony Chalmers, who is chairman of clinical oncology at the University of Glasgow, and will assess progress that has been made in the sector since 2018 and highlight \u201cwhat is still holding progress back\u201d.<\/p>\n

This will be followed by a national cancer plan with a view to get new treatments \u201cout of the lab and to patients faster\u201d, Downing Street said.<\/p>\n

No 10 also said that the Prime Minister has asked the medicines regulator, the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), to complete its review of the rules for medicines that treat rare conditions \u2013 known as orphan drugs \u2013 in two years rather than three, bringing forward any changes to these rules that could help patients get new treatments sooner.<\/p>\n

\"GoodburnGoodburn has been praised for his campaigning work by leading brain tumour charities (Kirsty Anderson\/Brain Tumour Research\/PA) <\/p>\n

Officials said that patients, families and charities will also help design a drive to get more people onto clinical trials.<\/p>\n

Health Secretary Yvette Cooper, who also attended the meeting in Downing Street on Wednesday, will lead the drive.<\/p>\n

Speaking on BBC Breakfast earlier this year, Goodburn described how trials around the world are not being seen in the UK which is \u201cunfair and unjust\u201d.<\/p>\n

Speaking after the meeting, Mr Burnham said: \u201cArchie is an inspiration to us all, and I am determined to deliver the change patients and their families deserve.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has spoken passionately about the need for change on brain cancer, and he\u2019s right: progress hasn\u2019t been good enough, here or anywhere else.<\/p>\n

\u201cFamilies facing this disease can\u2019t afford to wait.<\/p>\n

\"ScottishScottish swimmer Archie Goodburn at Downing Street (Hannah Mckay\/PA) <\/p>\n

\u201cThat is why today we\u2019re committing to appoint a dedicated national lead and setting out how we\u2019ll get new treatments to patients faster.<\/p>\n

\u201cI strongly support this work and was delighted to welcome Archie to Downing Street to discuss it with him in person.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms Cooper added: \u201cArchie has shown extraordinary courage in speaking out and fighting for everyone affected by brain cancer.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe owe it to every family facing this devastating disease to do better. We\u2019re acting to get more trials under way, new treatments to patients faster and make the UK a leader in tackling brain cancer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Commenting on the announcement, Dan Knowles, chief executive at Brain Tumour Research, said: \u201cGovernment has seized the opportunity to place research at the heart of transforming outcomes for brain tumour patients.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are optimistic that this renewed focus will help ensure discoveries in the laboratory actually make it to patients who so desperately need more options.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe thank Archie for his tireless efforts, as well as all those in the brain tumour community, to ensure those at the highest level of Government understand the devastating reality faced by brain tumour patients.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ArchieArchie Goodburn was diagnosed with an oligodendroglioma when he was 22 when he was training for Olympic try-outs (Andrew Milligan\/PA) <\/p>\n

Dr Michele Afif, chief Executive of the Brain Tumour Charity, said: \u201cThe package of measures announced today represent a generational shift in how brain tumours are seen and addressed in the UK.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey will build on the incredible work of many advocates, researchers, healthcare professionals and civil servants, who have long championed this change.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a moment of real celebration and we want to thank Archie for his role in helping to deliver this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Michelle Mitchell, chief executive of Cancer Research UK, added: \u201cWe\u2019re so grateful to Archie Goodburn for the work he does on behalf of people living with brain tumours, and his meeting with the Prime Minister today is a critical moment for people affected by this type of cancer.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday\u2019s announcements are an important step towards accelerating progress.\u201d<\/p>\n

Each year around 12,500 people are diagnosed with a brain tumour in the UK.<\/p>\n

Brain tumours are the biggest cancer killer of children and adults under the age of 40.<\/p>\n

Prof Chalmers said: \u201cI\u2019m deeply honoured and extremely excited to have this opportunity to help improve outcomes for patients with brain tumours through a properly resourced national initiative.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe UK brain tumour community is blessed with outstanding researchers, clinicians and patient representatives but for too long has had insufficient resources and faced too many barriers.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday\u2019s announcement offers genuine hope that we will be able to overcome these barriers and make the breakthroughs that our patients and their carers desperately need.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Scottish swimmer Archie Goodburn has been thanked for his efforts to improve brain cancer care for patients after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":654962,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[85530,276482,9607,245520,103,61,60,9036,1577],"class_list":["post-654961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-andy-burnham","tag-archie-goodburn","tag-brain-cancer","tag-brain-tumours","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-scotland","tag-uk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=654961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654961\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/654962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=654961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=654961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=654961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}