I recently managed to slip away for a few days break with good friends in Somerset which did me a power of good.

I was totally spoilt, with lovely homemade cooking, and a few trips out and about, including a good day visiting the wonderful Wells Cathedral with its marvellous scissor arches, and of course a ride on the West Somerset Railway to remind me of my youth and the glorious days of steam.

I’ve just read an encouraging report that child cancer deaths are down by a fifth in the past decade due to better treatments, which is welcome news.

Also, the Prime Minister has agreed to increase the annual Cancer Drugs Fund by a further £80m to take the total to £280m per annum until 2016.

This will make a real difference to the lives of so many cancer patients, as it means we should have longer with our families and loved ones.

I find it hard to believe that since its introduction by David Cameron, as many as 55,000 cancer patients have now benefited under this excellent life-extending scheme.

This has had a significant and positive impact on cancer survivors, and yet there are still those who oppose this decision saying it leads to “raising false hopes” and “only gives us a matter of extra months”.

I know patients who have been on Sutent for seven years or more and who are still leading full lives.

Some of the critics don’t realise that each one of us is different and may react in different ways to treatment.

Personally, I remain positive due to my Christian faith, and supporting prayers from many friends, but each of us has our own way of coping.

Of course our hope will always be that, if we can hang around long enough, perhaps a new drug/treatment will be found that may enable us to live even longer, albeit with cancer, which one day may be considered to be just another chronic disease.

I say this as the Government has already introduced a £100m programme for a huge genome project that will map the genetic make-up of up to 100,000 people to gain better understanding of cancer and other rare diseases.

Research is gathering apace regarding cancer, as almost daily I see reports of some new cancer drug breakthrough.

I would not be surprised to see the American drugs giant Pfizer once again mount another raid on AstraZeneca in an effort to acquire their high-value cancer drug pipeline, together with the tax benefits from relocation to England.

However, such time-consuming action may lead to production and research delays and slow down access for thousands of patients.

Cancer research and cancer treatment is an extremely complex subject as there are over two hundred different cancers which may occur almost anywhere.

Depending on location and cancer type, there are three main options available for treating this disease, surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy drugs.

So despite this welcome additional money for drugs, which is gratefully appreciated, I would remind the powers that be, that we are still awaiting the promised access to new innovative radiotherapy treatments if we are to match those available in other EU countries.

Having said that, there has been some movement as £6m has been awarded for radiotherapy clinical trials spread over five years.

Although as far as we can tell this is still not the £5m for immediate treatments that was promised by the Government and which was challenged by Lawrence Dallaglio on our behalf, when I joined him with MPs in Westminster.

This avoidance of any sort of direct response from NHS England troubles me, as I will not be able to afford yet another £15k from my savings if my cancer returns to my brain.

This reminds me that NHS England still owe us a reply to our last email of July 1. So far we have simply received an acknowledgement/apology quoting staff holidays as an excuse.

It sounds just the same as when they made me wait six weeks for treatment!

I am beginning to wonder whether they are fit for purpose as they certainly lack urgency when dealing with patients, and yet they quote the following values as enshrined in the NHS Constitution: “Respect and Dignity/Commitment to the Quality of Care/Compassion/Improving Lives/Working together for Patients/Everyone Counts”. Next move will be a Freedom of Information Request.

We don’t intend to give up until we are sure that all cancer patients are being treated as promised..

Alison Beaver, a good friend of mine from Freeland who had breast cancer, will be doing a sponsored Sky dive, in September for my favourite charity UCARE. Please visit the link below if you wish to sponsor her at www.doitforcharity.com/abeaver and www.ucare-oxford.org.uk/index.html