Jeremy Hunt’s heartbreak after brother’s death from rare cancer: how chancellor always hoped ‘beautiful’ Charlie, 53, would survive sarcoma battle

Jeremy Hunt today referenced his late brother Charlie as he unveiled a £6 billion NHS funding package.

Charlie Hunt died in August aged just 53, three years after he was diagnosed with spindle cell sarcoma – an extremely rare form of cancer that affects fewer than one in a million people.

Despite his terminal diagnosis, the Chancellor has previously said he always had “hope” that his brother would somehow pull through.

Speaking to the House of Commons, Mr Hunt said as he announced the budget that the health service would get £3.5 billion in his budget to boost outdated IT systems.

He claimed that NHS staff would stop wasting time filling out forms and instead increase the number of appointments available, helping to tackle the NHS backlog.

This would also help doctors interpret scans for diseases such as cancer more quickly, speeding up diagnosis, he added.

Mr Hunt said his brother would have been “delighted” by the measure.

Charlie, a successful businessman and father of three, was diagnosed with sarcoma in 2020.

He raised more than £140,000 through his own efforts for Sarcoma UK and the Royal Surrey Cancer & Surgical Innovation Centre, including running the London Marathon with his brother in October 2022 while undergoing treatment.

On his JustGiving page he told how he had undergone years of grueling treatment.

Charlie described undergoing surgery on his right leg, adding: ‘Since then the battle has continued with surgery on both my lungs.

‘I have been in and out of hospital almost constantly but have been treated extremely well by the NHS and am still fighting on almost three years later.’

After his death, Sarcoma UK paid tribute to Charlie, calling him a ‘lovely man and a tireless fundraiser’.

Around 5,300 people in Britain are diagnosed with sarcoma, an aggressive form of cancer of the soft tissue or bone, every year.

But survival rates are low, with more than 100 different subtypes, making effective diagnosis and treatment even more difficult.

Estimates also suggest that more than 1,000 people will be diagnosed with an ‘ultra-rare sarcoma’ such as synovial sarcoma.

In October, Jeremy spoke about his grief over the loss of his brother, revealing: ‘I never thought he would die.’

Speaking at a fundraising event for Sarcoma UK, he paid tribute to families who used personal tragedies to push for breakthroughs, and vowed to do the same for Charlie.

“When I was Health Minister I met many campaigners who had lost loved ones and who were angry and sad about the tragic loss of someone before their time,” he said.

‘It always impressed me when people said, ‘Instead of getting angry, I’m actually going to do something. I’m going to try to do something to change the NHS so this doesn’t happen again.’

He added: ‘It is very difficult to relive the grief of losing someone over and over again, to try to prevent the same thing from happening to other families. And it’s a wonderful thing.’

In an interview with The Mail in July, the Chancellor also told how cancer has affected his family and claimed the lives of both his parents.

He revealed how he once had a birthmark on his head that ‘just grew and grew’ and had to be removed.

“I was a minister at the time, not in my current job, but it was obviously the first time the ‘C-word’ had been used in terms of my own health, so that makes you sit up,” he said.

“But I was blessed. It was not a life-threatening cancer and the disease was caught relatively early.

‘I have had excellent treatment from the NHS to remove it, but I am very aware of members of my own family who have had a much tougher battle with cancer, and I know families are going through this all over the country.’