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Ever since, having received personal injury after being hit by cannonball, a dying Lord Nelson uttered the unforgettably stoic last words, "You can do nothing for me. I have but a short time to live. My back is shot through Fan, fan ... rub, rub ... drink, drink Kiss me Hardy Take care of poor Lady HamiltonThank God I have done my duty - God and my country," the stiff upper lip has been ingrained onto the British identity. However admirable a trait it may be, it now seems that, outside of medical negligence, the stiff upper lip may be behind more cases of undiagnosed cancer than anything else.
This revelation came after Professor Mike Richards, the UK's cancer tsar, warned that widespread reticence on the part of patients to to trouble their doctors with embarrassing or painful symptoms means that the stiff upper lip stands alongside medical negligence as a major cause of avoidable cancer deaths.
Disparities between cancer survival rates in the UK and those on the continent indicate that early diagnosis in Britain could save as many as 11,000 lives each year. When asked to account for the differences, Prof Richards commented, "It is a very interesting question to which we do not have the answer. We may be too stoical - I don't know.
"We know that cancer treatment in Britain has improved vastly in recent years and we are now beginning to see the impact on our survival rates. But we have still got work to do if we are going to catch up with the rest of Europe," he said. "I believe that if we can tackle delays in diagnosing cancer, we will be able to save thousands more lives in the future."
The professor said he believes that greater awareness of cancer is the only route forward to tackling the problem. Whether it helps cut out the effects of the stiff upper lip remains to be seen though.
And it seems that the government's National Awareness and Early Diagnosis Initiative may be just the ticket. Professor Richards explains, "They hold meetings in pubs, clubs, bingo halls and mosques. The aim is to get people to start talking about bowels and breasts and coughs, to find out what people know about cancer and to stimulate discussion.
"It is much more positive to say 'If you catch it early you are more likely to be cured' than to say 'Delay means you are more likely to die'."
Of course, seeking early help in identifying the cause of early symptoms will not exclude the possibility of misdiagnosis medical negligence then occuring, but it will certainly help reduce the possibility of unnecessary death occuring.
Perhaps the National Awareness and Early Diagnosis Initiative could use some of Nelson's words in its campaign. They certainly seem apposite: "Time is everything; five minutes make the difference between victory and defeat."
