Overview

• Dalton, 53, disclosed an incurable metastatic breast cancer diagnosis made last summer after a large tumour was found in tissue that had been an ovary, leading to a hysterectomy.
• A routine scan in June showed spread to abdominal lymph nodes, and she began capecitabine; she is on her fourth cycle under care at Clatterbridge Cancer Centre in Liverpool.
• She reports side effects such as fatigue and painful hands and feet but says she has not taken a day off work.
• Dalton urges employers and clinicians to support patients who wish to keep working, challenging assumptions that advanced cancer means immediate withdrawal from employment.
• She says Keir Starmer first offered support by letter and later asked her to write Labour’s national cancer plan, which is due before Christmas and will prioritise living well with metastatic disease for tens of thousands of patients.