Sometimes I ask myself why people even bother sharing their opinion on national television, especially on such a sensitive subject such as cancer. A friend mentioned a program called ‘My Transsexual Summer’ and how she was extremely angry with a statement a plastic surgeon had made.
Quote from Gender Reassignment Surgeon James Bellringer at Charing Cross:
‘We often get criticised why are we doing this operation which is cosmetic not life saving. But actually if you look at it as terms of quality of life we probably have the best operation there is.’
‘These patients before the operation are miserable, so an operation which theoretically cost £10,000 is delivering forty years of very much improved quality of life. There is no cancer operation that delivers that much.’
Mr Bellringer how dare you compare transgender and cancer patients by using survival statistics and cost. I had my mastectomy on Riverside wing at Charing Cross and whilst I sympathise with what transgender patients have to go through you cannot compare the realities of the two. My journey with cancer has left its scars both physically and mentally. I did not ask for cancer, just like your £10,000 a pop transgender patients did not ask to be one sex or the other. Your arrogant remark has yet deepened an already sensitive subject, especially when the NHS is already questioning whether certain medications should be used due to cost mounting on cancer treatment.
At first I thought maybe my friend might have heard wrong, but after watching this program myself I can see how the isms of cancer have struck again and created controversy.
I cannot believe the audacity of this a so called surgeon insinuating on national television that cancer life saving treatment is wasted money and then hides behind quality of life to validate that point. He is not an oncologist, but a urological surgeon and what would he know. I am personally saddened by this surgeon’s total disregard of what this surgery really means to a cancer patient. After all it affects 1-3 in a lifetime and you cannot pick who it will strike. And I know damn well the finger was pointing towards breast cancer because he is a plastic surgeon.
Mr Bellringer makes his appearance 42 minutes into the episode.
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