Women in Prison With Cancer Are Missing From the New 10‑Year Cancer Plan — Again

The government has finally released its long‑awaited 10‑year cancer plan, a document that promises to transform cancer outcomes across the country. But for all its ambition, one group of patients has once again been left out entirely:

Women in prison with cancer.

This omission is not a technical oversight. It is a political choice — one that continues a long pattern of erasing the health needs of women behind bars.

What FJC’s Report Reveals

The Feminist Justice Coalition’s recent report on women in prison with cancer exposes a system that is not simply failing — it is actively harming.

Our research found:

• Women are diagnosed later than the general population
• Appointments are routinely missed due to staffing shortages and security delays
• Chemotherapy and radiotherapy sessions are cancelled without explanation
• Women are transported in handcuffs, even when critically ill
• Continuity of care breaks every time a woman is moved or recalled
• Trauma, shame, and fear prevent women from seeking help early
• Some women die without ever receiving the treatment they needed

These are not isolated incidents. They are systemic failures.

A Plan That Excludes the Most Vulnerable

A national cancer strategy that does not include imprisoned women is not a national strategy.

It is a selective one — and it leaves behind the very people who face the highest barriers to diagnosis, treatment, and survival.

Women in prison are disproportionately:

• survivors of domestic and sexual violence
• living with complex trauma
• struggling with mental health conditions
• from marginalised communities
• living in poverty
• mothers and carers

When these women develop cancer, the system responds with indifference, delay, and punishment.

Health Care Is a Human Right — Not a Privilege

The right to healthcare does not stop at the prison gate.

Cancer does not discriminate, and neither should the system responsible for treating it.

If the government is serious about improving cancer outcomes, it must include:

• mandatory cancer screening in women’s prisons
• guaranteed access to treatment without delay
• trauma‑informed care pathways
• continuity of care across recalls and transfers
• proper data collection on cancer in custody
• accountability for missed or cancelled appointments

The FJC Will Not Allow These Women to Be Forgotten

The Feminist Justice Coalition will continue to amplify the voices of women whose experiences have been ignored for too long.

We will continue to expose the failures that cost lives.

And we will continue to demand that every woman — inside or outside prison — receives the care she is entitled to.

Women in prison are not invisible.

They are simply being ignored.

It’s time for that to end.

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