'Seriously optimistic': Tessa Jowell's daughter hopeful peer can beat cancer

Battling cancer: Dame Tessa Jowell
Ross Lydall @RossLydall16 February 2018

Tessa Jowell’s daughter today said she was “seriously optimistic” her mother could beat brain cancer as she told of their determination to help others with the condition.

Jess Mills is “project managing” the former Labour Cabinet minister’s care after she was diagnosed last year with a glioblastoma multiforme, the most common and aggressive form of brain tumour.

They have set up a new cancer organisation, ACT (Adaptive Collaborative Treatments), to drive international collaboration between doctors to break down barriers to pioneering drugs and therapies not available as standard on the NHS.

“She is doing great,” Ms Mills said of her mother. “We are fighting this. She is brave, she is magnificent, she is courageous. I’m seriously optimistic in the pursuit of beating this, but we are just taking every day at a time.”

Optimistic: Jess Mills
Damien McFadden

Ms Mills, 36, a singer, revealed she had tried to help Rickey Ricketts, a sound engineer and friend of her partner, musician Finn Vine.

Ricketts died aged 55 on January 16, six weeks after being diagnosed with the same kind of tumour as Baroness Jowell.

A benefit gig is being held next Friday at Shepherd’s Bush Empire, with Groove Armada and Orbital among the bands. Proceeds will go to his children, aged 12 and 19, and ACT.

Ms Mills said: “My mum was diagnosed last year with the same form of cancer Rickey died from. We learned first-hand about the terrifying limitations placed on patients by the current standard of care, and also about how much more can be done to increase survival and quality of life, if doctors are able to collaborate globally.”

ACT aims to make new cancer therapies available “irrespective of access or income”. Ms Mills said it had been an eye-opener how far ahead countries such as Germany - where Baroness Jowell has sought treatment - and the US were, especially in terms of immunotherapy drugs that unlock the body’s own immune system to fight the cancer.

“Since my mum was diagnosed, we have been contacted by different families who have been facing a similar diagnosis,” she said.

“I think it’s very, very hard to comprehend as a patient initially how many blockages there are within the system that will present themselves before you can access the best possible treatments.

“We are experiencing a lot of that. This about trying to help patients in the crucial first steps, and sometimes beyond, in what needs to be done to make sure you have the best possible chances.

“At the moment the standard of care for glioblastoma is almost 20 years old. There is a very low ceiling of care in this country. If we can start to look beyond that, there is a galaxy of options out there.”

Cancer battle: Tessa Jowell
AFP/Getty Images

Average survival rates for glioblastoma are 14 months from diagnosis. “If we start to look at what is happening in Germany and the US, you discover people who are living for many years because they are able to access the different forms of treatment,” she said.

“That is not just for brain tumours and brain cancer. That is for different forms of cancer as well.

“One in two people are now being affected by cancer in their lifetime. We feel this is something that should bind all of us together with a collective sense of purpose. We can do so much better.

“Tragically, a month after Rickey was diagnosed, he passed away. We spent that month working with them to get the best possible care and treatment for Rickey. Unfortunately and tragically it was just too late. He was diagnosed too late.”

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