Why we should all read the "Daily Mail"

Most intelligent people caught reading the Daily Mail will have an explanation. “I found it on the train” or “They delivered the wrong paper this morning. I normally get The Times”. Truth be told, apart from the title, The Times is increasingly indistinguishable from the Daily Mail. But I digress. Ben Goldacre of “Bad Science” has a column in The Guardian, so you would think he reads The Guardian. And he probably does. But he reads the Daily Mail too. His excuse seems to be that “he has to” because he is a medical journalist. OK, Ben, I can go with that.

In discussing the effect of popular medical journalism he says:

A 2005 study in the Medical Journal of Australia looked at the impact of Kylie Minogue’s breasts on mammogram bookings, looking at appointments made before, during, and after the peak of publicity over her cancer. This period saw a 20-fold increase in news coverage of breast cancer and that, in turn, had a significant impact on health behaviour at a population level. Bookings rose by 40% during the 2 week peak, and six weeks later they were still up by a third. The increase among previously unscreened women in the 40-69 year age group was 101%. These surges were unprecedented. Ben Goldacre : Bad Science

Of course, breast cancer is the most popular cancer of all, and Kylie Minogue is one of the most popular “A” list celebrities. Always best to have a fashionable, popular illness. Its treatment will be better resourced. It helps medical research funds enormously if a celebrity who suffers from the illness goes public.

We have managed to get some publicity about testicular cancer. Bob Champion was cured of it, and then went on to win the Grand National. You could make a film about something like that. Testicular cancer is, by and large, a young mans’ cancer and, caught early, it is curable. So the more publicity the better.

Celebrities and their agents don’t like botty, willy, wee-wee and poo cancers. The wonderful Sharon Osbourne has gone public about her bowel cancer, but many other celebrities have not. Roger Moore has been open about his prostate cancer. President Mitterand kept it quiet. Once he left office, Ronald Reagan talked openly of his Alzheimer’s disease though we may speculate about when it had begun to take hold. Harold Wilson left office voluntarily once he realized that his legendary memory and intellect was failing, but did not say why. John Wayne hated his lung cancer but did not hide it. Nor did Steve McQueen** (don’t those cigarette adverts he did seem sad).

How many celebrities can you name with bowel cancer? One or two? How many can you name with vulval cancer (surely one of the nastiest), or perianal cancer, or bladder cancer? I can’t think of any and yet, in my small list of 2000 patients, I have patients with all these diseases. It would help if more people went public. Think what Steven Fry has done for bi-polar depression. It is now a fashionable, almost desirable condition. I have had several patients who seem disappointed when I have told them that they “only” have “ordinary” depression.

We need high circulation newspapers to popularise (I use that word deliberately) less fashionable, more unpleasant illnesses.

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A reader tells me of a celebrity who has gone public about an "unfashionable" cancer. Do tell me of any others. It all helps.