21 May 2025
MP and optometrist, Shockat Adam, highlighted the importance of eye examinations in brain tumour diagnosis during a House of Commons debate on 8 May.
The optometrist, who has represented Leicester South as an independent MP since July 2024, told the House of Commons that “a simple eye test can detect a brain tumour.”
“I have unfortunately — or fortunately, in certain cases, because we have been able to detect them early — been in the position of seeing people who are completely asymptomatic, or people coming in with a simple headache, having brain tumours detected,” Adam said.
He added: “That is why I really want to emphasise that the avenue of using eye tests is undervalued and underutilised. They are completely non-invasive, cost efficient and accessible, and they can save so many lives.”
Adam made his statement during a debate on the lack of research into brain tumours.
The debate was brought forward by Dame Siobhain McDonagh, the MP for Mitcham and Morden, whose sister Margaret died of glioblastoma in 2023.
Margaret McDonagh, a former Labour Party general secretary, died aged 61 in June 2023, 18 months after her brain tumour diagnosis.
McDonagh noted that “there has been no progress in NHS treatment of brain tumours in 20 years and they are the biggest cancer killer of people under the age of 40.”
She called on Parliament to demand that the £40 million provided to the National Institute for Health and Care Research for brain tumour research in 2018 is spent.
The Government should ensure that the funds are put towards “innovative and meaningful drug trials,” McDonagh said.
She had proposed the debate in light of Brain Tumour Awareness Month, which took place in March.
A valuable tool
Adam noted that specific kinds of brain tumour are rare, “but collectively they are very common.”
“The simple fact that only 1% of our national cancer research funding goes to them is absolutely unacceptable,” Adam said.
Awareness campaigns around brain tumours are needed, Adam believes.
He noted that almost one in four children who go on to be diagnosed with brain tumours have experienced some level of sight loss or vision change.
One in three people later diagnosed with a brain tumour have reported a problem with their vision, Adam said.
He added: “An eye test cannot detect all brain tumours, but it is a really valuable tool.”
Addressing the parliamentary under-secretary of state for health and social care, Ashley Dalton MP, Adam asked: “Is it at all possible for us to have a national awareness campaign... to ensure that eye tests can be linked to brain tumours, so that they can be detected?”
In response to points raised by MPs, Dalton noted that the National Institute for Health and Care Research has invested £130 million in cancer research in the past financial year, and has enabled 261 NHS brain tumour studies involving 11,400 people “in potentially life-changing research” over the past six years.
The Government is “committed to furthering our investment in brain cancer research” and has “already taken some steps to stimulate scientific progress,” Dalton said.
He also added that the Government is “committed to backing innovative clinical research ecosystems in the UK, so that British patients can be among the first to benefit.”
The Government will also work closely with the pharmaceutical industry on creating a “faster, more efficient, more accessible and innovative clinical treatment delivery system,” Dalton said.
Comments (2)
You must be logged in to join the discussion. Log in
Anonymous23 May 2025
To fundamentally change how the public perceives optometry, the sale of spectacles should be completely divorced from eye examinations. As long as glasses sales and eye exams remain intertwined, many will continue to view the examination primarily as a sales tactic rather than a vital healthcare service.
By law and professional guidance, the sale of spectacles must not be a condition for performing an eye examination or sight test. Patients have the right to take their prescription and purchase glasses wherever they choose, underscoring that prescribing and dispensing are separate processes. However, in practice, these services are inevitably closely linked, reinforcing the perception of optometry as a retail business.
To truly establish optometry as a healthcare profession, we must advocate for a complete separation between clinical eye care and the sale of spectacles.
This means ensuring that eye examinations are valued and remunerated as standalone healthcare services, not as precursors to a retail transaction.
Only then will the public recognise the true medical value of eye care and see optometrists as essential healthcare providers, not just retailers.
ReportLike14
hilaryandmichael22 May 2025
Here is my professions problem in my humble opinion. It is without doubt that Optometry provides a valuable health care function which aside from anything else protects the hospital eye service and secondary care from complete collapse although in my 40 years in Optometry, I have yet to hear or see any individual from the royal college of ophthalmology acknowledge this fact for whatever reason.
Our main problem is that the public and the medical profession is highly suspicious of us as using the eye test as a "hook" to sell glasses to an unsuspecting public.
I have seen patients time and time again who have come to me for a second opinion having been "flogged" unnecessary glasses mainly from a large multiple optician businesses. This is and always has been very damaging to us as a profession. Until a
discussion is had between us all and our leaders to resolve this problem and being honest about what we are and do as healthcare providers rather than "quacks" our medical colleagues will continue to regard us with suspicion.
ReportLike5