Shocked might be too strong a word, so let’s say I was astounded this week to receive an email from a medical professional that acknowledged the mental health impact of having cancer. It states: “This may be a difficult time for you as you are receiving SACT treatment for a cancer diagnosis.” (I’ve also added SACT to the dictionary of acronyms that I’ve had to learn since being diagnosed with incurable bowel cancer back in the summer of 2023. It stands for systemic anti-cancer therapy and means the drug treatment used to control and treat cancer.)

The email goes on to say that discussions about my cancer treatment may bring up sensitive or upsetting topics. Apparently, if I become distressed or upset, then the healthcare professional will consider speaking to my medical team, and they may refer me to local psychological services. They will also offer me information on charity helplines where I can get support.

It all seems simple enough and a good way to monitor a patient’s mental health and get them help if needed.

It also seems very familiar. It’s familiar because it’s very similar to one of the calls that we are making in the Daily Express Cancer Care campaign.

We want all cancer patients to have mental health support both during and after their treatment, and their medical teams should be at the heart of this.

They should acknowledge that having cancer treatment is very tough, with patients battling with all kinds of feelings, from those about death to survival.

They should ask their patients about their mental health at every consultation and, if needed, refer them to psychological services, support groups, and charity helplines.

Sadly though the NHS hasn’t quite got it yet. The email I received was from someone who has years of experience in cancer care and nursing but was contacting me as part of her research for her PhD.

I’ve agreed to be interviewed on the topic of how patients feel when the medical consultation they have before chemotherapy is with a nurse or a pharmacist rather than a doctor.

Other patients will undoubtedly have different views than mine, but at the so-called world-leading hospital where I have treatment, I think the consultations are much the same no matter who conducts them.

They always check whether my magnesium and calcium levels are at a level where I’ll be okay to have treatment.

They never take appropriate action if my CT scan flags up an issue with something caused by the chemotherapy but isn’t something they treat at the hospital. For example, when a scan showed there was osteoporosis in my spine, my medical team said, “It will be monitored.”

This amused the nurses in the daycare unit, who wondered whether the doctors had invented X-ray glasses to allow them to do this “monitoring.”

It didn’t amuse one of my GPs, and she arranged for me to have a bone density scan. I’m now on tablets to try and counter the effects of the chemotherapy on my bones.

I’m going to tell the PhD researcher that the consultations I have are generally the same and that no-one in my medical team has ever asked the most important questions.

For me, taking part in the research is another way of getting the message out to doctors, nurses, and pharmacists within cancer care teams that they need to ask patients about the most significant side effects of treatment: the impact on their mental health.

And the Daily Express campaign won’t stop until this happens in hospitals up and down the UK.

After all, if a PhD student, with significant experience of working with cancer patients, can recognise that battling the disease can have an extremely detrimental effect on someone’s mental health then it shouldn’t be rocket science for oncology teams to recognise that they need to acknowledge this too.