Hello and welcome to midweek edition of The Southport Lead.
Last month, we reported on planned cuts which would see funding withdrawn from the highly valued Cancer Navigator Service which is run by Southport Macmillan Centre.
Today’s main story revisits that issue now a decision had been made - along with separate concerns about cancer care.
Southport briefing
👏 A documentary which allowed the families of the three girls killed in the Southport attack to tell their stories was named a winner at the National Television Awards. Our Girls: The Southport Families followed the families’ plans to create lasting legacies in their daughters’ names - Alice’s Wonderdance, Bebe’s Hive and Elsie’s Story - and featured interviews with the three sets of parents as well as previously unshared family footage. When the show was announced as winner in the Authored Documentary category, Elsie’s mum Jenni Stancombe said: “We never expected to be stood up here so I don’t know what to say. We know you didn’t vote for us, you voted for our three girls.” The awards were held on the same day that public hearings began for Phase Two of The Southport Inquiry. In a statement released beforehand, Nicola Ryan-Donnelly of Fletchers Solicitors, representing families of children who survived the attack, said: “The families fully appreciate that the issues and the problems that we saw in phase one were not localised problems. They know that this isn’t just something that went wrong here. The only way that we can get proper change that is going to be meaningful is if we look across the country and we look at where things are at nationally. They want that exercise to be as detailed as possible, so the chair can make really strong changes that are actually going to work.”
🟡 A three-times former Mayor of Sefton and long-serving Southport councillor died after falling and banging her head, an inquest has heard. Maureen Fearn fell in the bathroom of her Southport care home in August and died in hospital shortly after. An inquest at Bootle Town Hall heard that she was not in pain from the injury but had no recollection of it. Senior coroner Anita Bhardwaj explained that Mrs Fearn’s nephew had no concerns about the care she had received and noted that she was instructed to wait for help but was “independent and stubborn”. Mrs Fearn represented the Liberal Democrats on both Sefton Council and its predecessor the Southport Coporation during four decades of public service. Paying tribute, Cllr John Pugh said: “Cllr Pugh said: “Maureen Fearn’s life of community service is well understood and appreciated - particularly in her own beloved Kew ward. Anyone who met her seldom forgot her. She personified traditional, down to earth, no nonsense, Lancastrian commonsense and values, delivered without fear, favour or affectation, and often with considerable insight. If ever there was a politician who told it to you straight, it was Maureen Fearn, though always coupled with an amused affection for humanity and its foibles.”
🦜 The decision to close the Botanic Gardens Aviary will be reviewed at a meeting of Sefton Council’s Overview and Scrutiny meeting next week. Liberal Democrat councillor Mike Sammon has requested the review, pointing to mixed messaging from the council over the reasoning behind the move and a lack of scrutiny on the process so far. The decision, which comes into effect next year, was effectively taken in March when a new budget was agreed which included a £60,000 saving through closure. The council subsequently said no consultation was held as it was a budget decision while also stating the decision was based on animal welfare concerns. Cllr Sammon’s request for a review states that “the decision to close the Botanic Gardens Aviary has proved to be highly controversial with more than 15,000 people signing a petition opposing the closure, and the decision affects residents and communities across more than one ward.” It adds: “There have been numerous demonstrations of public disquiet about the decision, including two very well attended public meetings as well as numerous residents attending in the public gallery to watch a debate at the last Council meeting in July 2026. Given the significant level of public interest and the wider community impact, together with the mixed messages concerning the decision coming from the Council over recent months, this decision warrants proper scrutiny – something that hasn’t been available so far.”
Cuts and concern put spotlight on cancer care
By Jamie Lopez
Concerns over waiting times and the future loss of a much valued service have brought the spotlight onto cancer care in Southport.
Southport MP Patrick Hurley has called for action to be taken to bring down cancer waiting times as national and local performances fell below targets. Meanwhile, proposes cuts to a cancer support service previously reported by The Southport Lead have now been confirmed.
After meeting with Radiotherapy UK in Parliament, Hurley highlighted NHS figures which show that in June, 76.2% of cancer patients treated by Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust received their first treatment within 62 days, 8.8 percentage points below the NHS standard of 85%.
While that means that almost one in four patients covered by the measure waited longer than the 62-day standard, the national average is actually worse, with an average of 69.9% in June
Radiotherapy is running #CatchUpWithCancer campaign, which calls on the government and NHS to boost cancer services so patients can receive faster and better treatment, alongside Craig and Mandy Russell who lost their daughter Kelly, 31, to bowel cancer after she failed to receive the treatment she needed.
The charity estimates that only 33.5% of cancer patients in the North West receive radiotherapy, compared with a recommended benchmark of around 53%, highlighting continuing regional inequalities in access to treatment.
Hurley, who is a member of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Less Survivable Cancers, has previously spoken about his own experiences of losing his wife and father to esophageal cancer within months of each other in 2006. Calling for greater efforts to bring down waiting times, he also urged people to have their symptoms checked as early as possible.
He said: “We have to keep bringing cancer waiting times down, increase capacity and make sure that, wherever somebody lives, they can access the treatment they need as quickly as possible.
“The Government’s National Cancer Plan rightly puts earlier diagnosis, faster treatment and reducing inequalities at the heart of improving cancer survival. The challenge now is making sure patients everywhere feel the benefit.
“But there is also something all of us can do. If you notice any symptoms, please don’t put off speaking to your GP because you don’t want to make a fuss or because you hope it will simply go away.
“That is especially important for less survivable cancers such as oesophageal, pancreatic and stomach cancer, where diagnosing the disease earlier can make an enormous difference.
“My message is simple: the NHS needs to get people through the system faster, and we need to get ourselves into that system sooner when something isn’t right.”
Earlier this year, the government released its National Cancer Plan which sets out what the next decade of care and support will look like and, among other targets, aims to meet all cancer waiting-time standards by 2029. In turn, it wants to improve early diagnosis and tackle inequalities in cancer outcomes across the country.
A Department for Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “We know there is more to do to ensure that people in Southport and everywhere else in the country are getting the care they deserve.
