Cancer-sufferer Susanne Cameron-Blackie is standing for election against Jeremy Corbyn in Islington – but may not even make it to June 8
The brave 68-year-old is taking on the Labour leader in his own backyard
SUSANNE CAMERON-BLACKIE is not just fighting cancer, she's fighting Jeremy Corbyn too for his seat in Parliament.
The brave political blogger is taking on the Labour leader in his own backyard in Islington next month.
But the 68-year-old doesn't even know if she will make it to polling day - but she is determined to use all her time to fight both her illness and Mr Corbyn.
She was given three months to live back in April as the cancer spread through her body.
: "I may be the first parliamentary candidate forced to lie down, rather than stand, for office. But I’m determined to do something useful with what’s left of my life."
And Susanne - who blogs under the name Anna Raccoon - is taking him on on the key Labour issue of the NHS.
She claimed that the health service wasn't safe under him either.
"Jeremy Corbyn claims the NHS isn’t safe in Tory hands. But the truth is, it’s not safe under Labour, either," she said.
"The crisis that is threatening to destroy it gets deeper every day for reasons Corbyn hasn’t started to think about – and that’s why I’m running against him."
She wants to safeguard the health service from legal negligence claims which she says are cutting into vital funds.
Susanne claimed she was recently approached by the hospital's legal department when she was mistakenly given the wrong medication - as they were terrified she would take action.
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"I was flabbergasted. Why? What would be the point? I know why the mistake was made: because the nurses in that unit are rushed off their feet," she said.
"If I were to sue, the only thing that would change would be my husband’s bank account in several years, long after I’m gone."
She claimed that Corbyn and Labour didn't "get it".
"They say they are socialists, yet they're doing nothing about a system which treats the NHS as if were a manufacturer making faulty products, instead of a provider of a vital social good."
Last year alone settlements cost the NHS more than £1.5billion.
As the victim of negligence herself ages 23 when she was mistakenly given a hysterectomy, she claims that "money would have made no difference" and she picked herself up and "moved on".
Her cancer has caused her to lose her hair, and every day she has countless medicines to keep the illness at bay for as long as possible.
A team of nurses visits her every day from her cottage in Norfolk as her rare form of tissue cancer has now rendered her immobile.
When Theresa May called the election a few weeks back, she says she "knew this was my chance".
Susanne will travel to Islington tomorrow to officially register as an independent candidate.
"Just imagine: if some of the billions going to law firms and left legacies could be put into patient care, what a difference that would make," she said.
"I will fight to my dying breath to make people – including Jeremy Corbyn – recognise this fact."