Wes Streeting has revealed he suffers with “survivor's guilt” when speaking about a friend of his who died from cancer last week. The Health Secretary told how he had become friends with music teacher Nathaniel Dye who turned to campaigning after he was diagnosed with terminal cancer.

Nathaniel lost his battle with the disease aged just 40. Mr Streeting said: “As a cancer survivor myself I know how important early diagnosis is, not least because only last week I lost a good friend to cancer. The only reason I’m alive and he isn’t is because my cancer was caught early at stage 1, while the NHS wasn’t there for Nathaniel Dye when he needed it. He died as a result of stage 4 bowel cancer which then spread throughout his body.”

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Nathaniel Dye - known as Nat to his friends - received an MBE for his work campaigning for cancer awareness and a better NHS after his diagnosis in 2023. He raised money for Macmillan Cancer Support through challenges such as walking from Land's End to John o' Groats and running the London Marathon while playing the trombone.

In 2023 he introduced Wes Streeting to the stage at the Labour Party conference and in 2024 spoke at the launch of the party's election manifesto. Wes spoke to the Mirror about Nat before the launch of the National Cancer Plan which the minister hopes will be a lasting legacy to him by ensuring fewer cancers are missed.

Wes said: “There are lots of us who’ve been through cancer who describe having survivor’s guilt. My friend Nathaniel Dye who came to me actually as his local MP, that’s how we got to know each other and became friends, he came to me because he had stage 4 bowel cancer that had been diagnosed far too late.

“The NHS had missed the tell-tale signs. He had been kept waiting far too long for tests and scans. As a result of the contrast in our experiences, I’m here talking to you and he died last week. It doesn’t get more brutal than that in terms of an NHS that is there when you need it - and an NHS that isn’t.

“Both Nat and I have a shared passion for and belief in the NHS. Even after his experience of being let down at that early stage, we dedicated so much of our lives as cancer patients to fighting for the NHS because we know what it means.”

Wes Streeting was diagnosed with kidney cancer in 2001 at the age of 38 after it was picked up by a routine scan when he went into hospital to have a kidney stone removed. He said: “When I had my cancer I spent most of my time after my surgery sat on the sofa watching box sets, stuffing my face and feeling a bit sorry for myself.

“In Nat’s case, while living with stage 4 cancer and gruelling treatment he was going through, he ran marathons, ran from John o’ Groats to Lands End and threw himself into campaigning on a whole range of issues. He was an amazing, amazing man.”