Westminster councillor Nafsika Butler-Thalassis, who has had treatment for breast cancer, is proud of what Labour has done since winning power in 2022

A SENIOR member of Labour’s current administration has been balancing her role as a committed public servant with treatment for breast cancer.

Diagnosed last May, Nafsika Butler-Thalassis has come through surgery and chemotherapy and although needing medication her prognosis is good.

The Maida Vale councillor spoke to Extra this week about the experience, the too-close-to-call election in less than a month, Labour’s four years in power, and a newfound desire to explore the wider world.

Cllr Butler-Thalassis said: “There were some days I couldn’t do because of the chemotherapy sessions, but I found I could still do the meetings. I only missed one full council meeting throughout the whole thing. It felt important to keep life normal, and good to be busy. I didn’t want every day to be a cancer day.

“At the start I found it difficult to tell everyone about it. After I lost my hair, I started turning up at council meetings in a hijab. But that just led to many more questions.

“It’s about vulnerability. I appreciate everyone would have been kind to me, but I felt something about only wanting to tell the people who love you, you know? It took me ages to go to tell the opposition [Conservative group], although I knew they would wish me well.”

Cllr Butler-Thalassis said she had noticed the lump in her breast and was diagnosed soon after. Surgery followed in June then losing her hair in August during the chemotherapy.

“I was 48 at the time so I was just under the age for screening. It was all quite surreal. I have had some issues but the whole process was fine on the whole.”

Cllr Butler-Thalassis, who grew up in Greece, first moved to Maida Vale in 1994. She has a part-time CEO role of the BME Health Forum charity and has a PhD in the history of British military psychiatry.

She was first elected as a Labour councillor in 2018, saying she went into politics after being “radicalised” by Brexit. She was one of the senior councillors that pulled off an incredible victory in 2022, winning control of the city council for the first time in its history.

Support for the Labour government is low and the pollsters are predicting a narrow victory for the Conservatives this time around. But Cllr Butler-Thalassis said “things are looking really good” in Maida Vale where the support feels solid. The Greens have also announced a slate of 54 candidates.

“What’s really important is talking to people. People who might be judging us on national issues but people need to hear about what Labour has been doing locally.

“I’m proud about a lot of what we’ve done.”

She said since winning power in 2022 Labour had made more of an effort in the north of the borough, regeneration of Maida Hill Market and investing in new shopfronts in Harrow Road.

She said her own major achievement as adult social care lead member was to bring in higher salaries for the council’s home-care workers, and a system that pays them for time spent travelling between jobs.

There is also a significant reduction of an earnings threshold with which Westminster residents under 65 can claim free or heavily subsidised adult care social care.

“I am not saying that we have fixed all the problems out there. But I think there are something like 500 people who are getting free or almost free adult social care that wouldn’t have been otherwise.”

She also spoke about a more effective way of delivering voluntary sector care grants that is helping many charities, add­ing: “These are the sorts of things that I’m proud of, they have made real differences to people’s lives. It worries me that they could be taken away if we do lose.

“Personally, too. There has been a lot of debate about what we earn recently. In 2022 I had to go part-time at my work and it is not automatic that there will be full-time hours waiting for me if we lose. It’s an issue for many other colleagues too.

“It is a really risky profession. But it has been such a privilege. Some of it is hugely rewarding. As a councillor you can’t change the system, but you can really make a difference.”

After her diagnosis she said: “You do feel like life is short and there is that element that you can’t take anything for granted. It has just made me more determined to make sure I am working jobs where I don’t feel like my time is being wasted. The experience makes me appreciate the things I have got and it also makes me want to travel more. I have all these colleagues from all over the world but I have not been to many places.

“I really would like to go to Spain later this year to see the solar eclipse.”