Ms Averil Power:

We do not have full data. Ms Morrogh can give more detail on exactly how many people have died as a result of staging, that is, people being picked up maybe at stages 3 or 4 who would have been caught previously at stages 1 or 2. Indeed I saw mention in the NCCP statement, whose representatives will be in after us, that they do not have data on staging. They do not have data either on how many people are being caught at stage 3 who we would have expected to get at stages 1 or 2. Then there is the second step as to how that has affected their outcomes. What we do know is that oncologists are telling us, and many have gone on the record to say this publicly, that they are seeing people with much more advanced cancers than they would have previously. That is the reality on the ground and, in their professional opinion, it is resulting in worse outcomes. Patients are also contacting our services saying that is their experience, and there are others who are now being picked up late who have that worry about whether their outcome could have been better had they been caught earlier, which is an awful thing to have to live with.