London teacher leaves cancer campaigning legacy

From the moment Nathaniel Dye was diagnosed with stage four bowel cancer in 2023, he had an overwhelming desire to raise awareness of the disease.

He raised more than £37,000 for Macmillan Cancer Support through challenges including walking from Land's End to John o' Groats and running the London Marathon while playing the trombone, in the hope of improving cancer screening in the capital.

"When I am lying in my deathbed, I will be able to look back and say that I did the very best I could with the time I had left," Dye previously told BBC London.

The 40-year-old music teacher from east London died on 29 January after the cancer spread to his liver, lungs and brain.

His death came just days before the government released its National Cancer Plan, which includes measures aimed at trying to improve early diagnosis rates.

Dye, from Chigwell, had spoken to BBC London several times over the last couple of years - including when he backed the assisted dying bill and more recently when he was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for his cancer awareness campaigning.

He said his concerns were dismissed when he first sought medical help, and that his cancer was terminal by the time he was diagnosed - which is why campaigning to improve cancer screening was so important to him.

"I had this real intense desire to raise awareness of the symptoms of cancer so that people wouldn't end up like me, which is with a really horrible prognosis," he said.

North-west London has the lowest bowel cancer screening uptake in England at 59% compared with 70% across the country.

Routine bowel cancer screening currently begins at the age of 54, but this will be lowered to 50 in April.

More than nine in 10 people survive bowel cancer when diagnosed at the earliest stage.

Gemma Peters, chief executive at Macmillan Cancer Support, said Dye was "driven to improve things for other people".

"Cancer care isn't fair across the UK. In areas of deprivation in some areas of London, where there are high populations of black and ethnic minority communities, those inequities show up in cancer diagnosis.

"That's one of the commitments that's in the [National Cancer Plan] that we're really keen to work hard on."

Dye's sister Becky Scott said he was "so much more than just a cancer patient".

She spoke to BBC London at a charity show her brother had spent more than a year organising. He died a few days before the event.

"We're so proud of him for everything that he's achieved," Scott said. "He was so much more than a campaigner. He was our brother."

Jon Dye, Nathaniel's brother, said: "I miss him in a selfish way for me, but what he meant to so many people overwhelms me so much.

"It absolutely kills me that he can't see this [charity show]. I hope he knew, and I'm sure he knew, the impact he was making as he was going through doing it."

Speaking after collecting his MBE, Dye delivered a message to anyone facing a cancer diagnosis.

He said: "If this does happen to you, I really hope it doesn't, but live, you still can.

"Your life isn't over and I hope if nothing else I can show that."

Listen to the best of BBC Radio London on Sounds and follow BBC London on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hello.bbclondon@bbc.co.uk