Hi Kim,

I share your frustration about this - especially as the average length of time from first GP appointment to treatment has started to lengthen over the past twelve months. 

In my case, I lacked most of the usual symptoms of Osophageal Cancer - no unexplained weight loss, no chronic fatigue, no difficulty swallowing and the symptoms I had abated with the use of over the counter remedies such as Gaviscon. That resulted in me being initially misdiagnosed and put on a non-cancer care pathway, with even longer timescales. No wonder I was at stage 4 by the time I was correctly diagnosed! 

Ideally, the NHS would have sufficient resources to deliver within much shorter timescales but the way things are going I predict the referral to treatment timescales will worsen over the coming years unless we somehow make politicians of all parties sit up and listen. We need to shame them into doing the right thing. This isn't a party political issue for me as Labour's spending plans for the NHS weren't significantly different from the Conservative's plans. 

I don't work for CRUK, though I have started doing some voluntary work, there is some useful information elsewhere on this site which I recommend to anyone (like me) who has a vested interest in improving the situation. www.cancerresearchuk.org/.../campaign-for-us

Best wishes
Dave