SIOPE Colleagues & Partners from the UK

29/06/2016
SIOPE, the European Society for Paediatric Oncology, confirms its commitment to continue to work together with our colleagues and partners from the United Kingdom. More than 200 SIOPE members from the United Kingdom (of whom two sitting on the Board of our Society) considerably contribute to the implementation of the SIOPE Strategic Plan, and our membership is not exclusive to people within the European Union. SIOPE greatly values the longstanding collaboration of British colleagues in jointly advancing medical research and promote the best standards of care in paediatric haematology-oncology. This will not change: we will always consider our British members and partners as an integral part of the SIOPE community. Professor James Nicholson and the whole Executive of the UK Children’s Cancer and Leukaemia Group agree with this view, and recently shared the following statement: “The majority decision made today for the UK to exit the EU has come as a huge disappointment to us on the CCLG Executive and many of our colleagues working to make lives better for children with cancer. Leaving the EU will create significant challenges for the children’s cancer community and although this is not an outcome that we wished for, we must respect the decision of the UK electorate. CCLG is a community of professionals working in the field of childhood cancer from throughout the UK and Ireland. Regardless of any actions that may be taken in due course by the devolved nations, we are already set to be an organisation that will include nations within and outside the EU. All of us in the UK now face a period of considerable uncertainty. However, there are some things that we can be sure about. Changes in our political structures will not stand in the way of our determination to improve outcomes for children and young people with cancer. Progress in children’s’ cancer care can only be made by international collaboration and the partnership we have had with European colleagues has worked well over many years now. The progress made by the international paediatric oncology community has always depended more on the friendships and respect we have generated for each other than on any formal structures and funding arrangements that may or may not have been available to us. On behalf of the CCLG Executive I would like to reassure our colleagues, and most importantly the patients that we treat and their families, that we are as committed as ever to international collaboration and cooperation and that the recent result will, if anything, strengthen our resolve. We have been heartened by the volume and content of messages from our friends and colleagues within the European paediatric oncology (SIOPE) community who share our desire to continue working together for the benefit of children with cancer. We work with enlightened and brilliant colleagues from many countries and I am confident that we will continue to do so long into the future.” Although regretting that the United Kingdom has chosen to vote to leave the European Union (EU), SIOPE will remain strongly committed to working together at a pan-European level with CCLG and all other British members and partners, all united to ensure for the best outcomes for childhood cancer patients and survivors.