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It’s World Lung Cancer Day 2026. It’s also exactly 7 years since I had surgery to remove a metastatic tumour from my brain caused by my own lung cancer. I got this rather fetching scar! 1/n

In the 7 years since my diagnosis we’ve come a long way. There is a screening program for lung cancer in England and plans under way for equivalents in the devolved nations. There’s a huge number of new treatments available for lung cancer sub-types we could hardly even detect 7 years ago. 2/n

Advances in biopsies and analysis of fragments of tumour DNA allow us to get to accurate diagnoses faster. The NHS has also done a huge amount of work operationally to shorten the diagnostic pathway despite massive pressure on resources. 3/n

The median survival time for stage 4 patients has finally got past the 1 year mark, and many patients like myself do a whole lot better. 4/n

But there’s still plenty to be done. We have to get better at early diagnosis - too many patients, especially non-smoking lung cancer patients are diagnosed too late at stage 4 where we can’t currently attempt curative treatment. 5/n

Too many primary care clinicians continue to wave away symptoms that should really cause them to “think cancer”. And there are too many types of lung cancer where we don’t have targeted/personalised treatments available. 6/n

I’m positive and hopeful about what the next 7 years will bring! Please consider a donation to one of these worthy charities to help improve outcomes for lung cancer: Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation: roycastle.org 7/n

Oncogene Cancer Research: www.oncogeneresearch.org 9/n

This is the last thought I will be giving to cancer today, as I have something much more important to celebrate- today is our (me & Kay) 28th wedding anniversary! 10/10