"I'll be dead in three years, my hope is gone... but I can’t stop wondering what might have been"

A man dying of cancer has delivered an impassioned plea for the public’s support for Labour in Manchester.

Nathaniel Dye, a music teacher, was one of the speakers ahead of Keir Starmer’s address in the city to introduce Labour’s manifesto for the general election. Visibly emotional, the 38-year-old recounted his own story of fighting cancer — saying he will ‘be doing well to live another three years, let alone 30’.

“When I was first diagnosed in October 2022 it looked like I might be able to survive the bowel cancer that had only spread to my liver and be cancer free after surgery,” he began. “But when further spread was discovered in my lungs and lymph nodes in my neck, my prognosis worsened.

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“No matter how much gruelling treatment I volunteered to put myself through, one thing is for certain: this cancer will kill me.

“One day too soon, it will end my life. There's nothing I can do about it now.”

However, Mr Dye said that he has been ‘let down’ in his treatment. He went on: “But I can’t stop wondering what might have been because I spent over 100 days waiting for cancer treatment when the government target is 62, and there’s a chance if chemotherapy had come sooner, my cancer might not have spread.

“It’s no one person's fault that scans and appointments took so long to come through, and so many wonderful people in the NHS have worked tirelessly to care for me. But it’s clear that the system has badly let me down.

“I represent the human cost of an NHS neglected over the last 14 years and I invite anyone who stands by that dismal record in government to look me in the eye and say that ‘it was good enough’. We all deserve so much more.

“I see Labour policy to deliver 40,000 appointments a week to cut waiting times, a real tangible plan to give people the treatment they need before it’s too late.

“Why should I bother to speak up now? After all, it’s too late for me but it’s not too late to call for change, to support those who would improve in my unfortunate position to grow old.

“It’s my last general election… I’m proud to say a Labour government is what I hope for, now my own hope is gone.”

Labour’s plans for the NHS also include ‘doubling the number of cancer scanners’ and hiring ‘8,500 additional mental health staff’. Their Conservative counterparts want to ‘publish and implement a Major Conditions Strategy’ in order to prevent six life-threatening conditions — including cancer — ‘from occurring and ensure those living with them receive the best possible care’.

“We are committed to accelerating the NHS’s recovery from the pandemic, delivering safe and effective services and ongoing improvements in waiting times for primary, elective, cancer and emergency care,” the Tory manifesto adds. “We will return performance to the levels set out in the NHS Constitution by the end of the next Parliament.”