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Interview with Isaac Dweben, Chief Executive Cancer Black Care, London

Cancer is still seen as stigma however this concept is now reducing.

Word Cancer has gone into the vocabulary of the community but still more work has to be done. This stigma arises from fear as cancer is linked to death and also from the reaction of community

" Stigma is still there,
Death sentence is still there
Big ' C ' is still there
Fear of unknown is still there "

" Cancer is not a one man show "

We have come to address a huge gap in the BME community as far as cancer is concerned. There is a report from Department of Health that reflects the importance of BME community to realise that cancer is a neglected area organisations. That time there was no BME organisation working in the field of cancer.

We need more people and organisations to deal with cancer patients and more specific staff in the mainstream services like McMillan nurses, social services, etc. There are very few Oncology nurses in the NHS.

NHS Cancer Plan is working to tackle the inequalities in the cancer services.

During Palliative Therapy period patients need more supportive elements that should address the emotional, social, spiritual, physical and religious aspects.

"Death of my brother from cancer gave me motivation to work for cancer care since 1995"

Member of :
- Northeast London Cancer Network.
- London Cancer Taskforce.
- London Cancer Quality improvement Reference Group.

He is the first person to start raising cancer awareness among Black community in the UK.
In the year 2000 he gave a presentation in House of Commons on Cancer Issues affecting BME communities.