Although I now work for the Throat Cancer Foundation, I am writing this firstly as a parent, who would do anything to protect their child from accidents or diseases by any means possible.
In the UK since 2008, the government routinely offers to young girls aged from 12 a vaccination programme to protect them against the human papilloma virus (HPV), a virus which could go on to develop in some cases into cervical cancer, if that protection was not in place.
Boys however are not given that same opportunity of protection, but who sadly face as many risks of developing a variety of different cancers, which includes along with throat cancer, penile, anal and mouth cancer, from HPV.
The government's current position is that it is cheaper to treat those who develop cancer in males adulthood than it does to introduce a vaccination programme whilst teenagers to protect them against the future risk of developing cancer. This is we believe cold comfort if you of course go on to develop a cancer or even if you have to watch and support a loved one dealing with a horrendous cancer diagnosis.
We are making great strides to eradicate cancer in the UK, but lets not mince our words here, people still do die or at the very least suffer long term health conditions from the lasting effects of cancer and or its treatments.
HPV is a very common virus which most of us will get at some point in our lives, but the stage where it becomes a cancer can be 20 or 30 years later after infection. There is no way of know where you get HPV from, nor are there any symptoms, but what we do know is that is that all this can be prevented by a simple vaccination. That's why we (the organisation I work for, the Throat Cancer Foundation) is considering taking the government to court to try to force them to have a judicial review to try to get them to reverse their position of not vaccinating boys due to cost.
We believe, and me more so as a dad to a teenage boy, believe the government is wrong and must be forced into giving boys the opportunity to be protected against the risk of different types of cancer as much as girls. They have that right too.
I don't want to risk seeing my child grow up to develop cancer for the sake of a simple vaccination. I don't want to see his family and friends to have to deal with supporting them when we know that conditions throat cancer can be potentially eradicated for all.
Thank you for reading.
Kind regards
Gordon