AN Evesham widow visited the Houses of Parliament earlier this month to listen to a debate sparked by a campaign she has been backing.

Sandra Francis, of Waterside, in Evesham, has been supporting the call for more funding to be dedicated to fighting pancreatic cancer after losing her husband Pete to the disease in December 2012.

Currently only three per cent of those diagnosed with the disease live more than five years and just one per cent of government funding towards fighting forms of cancer goes towards pancreatic cancer, a figure which has not changed in 40 years.

The campaigners took their fight all the way to the top through an online petition, which gathered more than 100,000 signatures, the number required to ask for a Parliamentary debate on the campaign.

On Monday, September 9, Mrs Francis and other campaigners from across the UK, met in the corridors of Westminster to hear the discussion.

And they were joined by high profile supporter, Coronation Street actress Julie Hesmondhalgh, whose character Hayley Cropper died of the disease.

Mrs Francis said: "I was so excited. There was a three hour debate and Maggie Watts' MP Nik Dakin spoke on the issue alongside Eric Ollerenshaw MP, whose partner died of pancreatic cancer.

"They are on opposite sides so it was nice they came together."

Nic Dakin MP said: "Time to change the story. It is time for action. This is the beginning of the rest of the campaign."

Mrs Francis added: "Another 40 years can’t pass without change in the dire statistics that are Pancreatic Cancer.

"They have never had so many people in the public gallery, they had to ask for more chairs."

Support for the campaign was clear as shown in the final statement by Jane Ellison, the Under Secretary of State for Health.

She said: "We all know that change needs to come and that it will not be easy, but we can make change. We have seen it in other hard areas of medicine, so it is not impossible, it is just difficult.

"Through the Government working in partnership with patients, charities, the nation’s excellent research teams, the pharmaceutical industry and the NHS as well as by drawing on international data, we can make progress, and we all know that we must."

Mrs Francis said it made the journey worthwhile.

But the grandmother is not done fundraising for the Pancreatic Cancer Charity, which she has been doing for the past two years.

Her latest event is a special showing of Dirty Dancing, starring Patrick Swayze, who also lost his life to pancreatic cancer, will raise hundreds of pounds for the charity if all 280 seats are filled.

Mrs Francis said anyone who like to come along to the showing on Tuesday, September 30, between 10am and 12.30pm, is welcome to call her to buy a ticket, costing £5, on 01386 47840.

Anyone who cannot attend but would like to support Mrs Francis can visit justgiving.com/Sandra-Francis3.