sometimes hear of excellent stories and people get treated immediately but sometimes there is a flip side? yes. nhs professionals, the cancer teams, have done incredible work to try and keep cancer services going through the pandemic are many people have experienced great quality care and progress through the system without delay but we know significant numbers have had a really difficult time waiting for the next stage of their surgery or treatment and that has been delayed or cancelled. that is because covid has hit different parts of the country in different ways and there are health service pressures including the amount of workforce we have got, in frontline staff, which is different in different parts of the country. these also represent underlying weaknesses in the cancer system and we were off the waiting times target before the pandemic so that, as to show how it will take action now to prioritise cancer care to make sure people access timely diagnosis and treatment and they have to invest in the cancer workforce in the long term or we will not clear the backlog is and if any of us in the future sit in a