Calling for more treatment breakthroughs for pancreatic cancer
This summer, we’ve been on a mission to raise awareness of the urgent need for pancreatic cancer treatment breakthroughs.
This summer, we’ve been on a mission to raise awareness of the urgent need for pancreatic cancer treatment breakthroughs. Whether that’s speaking to your MP in Westminster, or touring UK governments to hand in over 40,000 of your signatures demanding survival now – we’ve been on the ground making sure our collective voice is heard.
Why are we demanding survival now?
7 in 10 people with pancreatic cancer are told there is no treatment available for them.
Their chance of survival is taken away – half of people diagnosed die within three months.
That’s because for decades governments neglected pancreatic cancer research. This means there are hardly any treatments, and those that do exist are toxic and gruelling. People are left with only hope to hold onto. This is unacceptable.
We have three demands to change things:
More chances: Personalising treatment by testing tumours whenever possible.
More progress: A system that fast-tracks people onto clinical trials
More lives saved: Funding for research to support future pancreatic cancer treatments and trials
What have we achieved?
In just a short few months, we’ve achieved so much together:
- We’ve built relationships with parliamentarians from our event in Westminster in June – thanks to those of you who invited your MP to attend.
- We’ve worked with NHS England to ensure new treatment options are available for people with pancreatic cancer – a key call of our campaign.
- We’ve had 40 parliamentarians sign our open letter to the Cancer Minister, calling on the government to prioritise treatment breakthroughs for pancreatic cancer. Thank you for writing to your MP and asking them to sign.
- We’ve toured parliaments across the UK, handing in your signatures to the governments in Westminster, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
We need more lives to be saved. We need faster access to clinical trials, and to increase hope.
What’s next?
We’re not done yet. Here are just a few things on the horizon:
- We’ve been invited to work with the Scottish Government Chief Scientist’s Office to drive more treatment breakthroughs in Scotland.
- We will be submitting our open letter to James Frith, the Minister for Health.
- We will be working closely with our new parliamentary champions to make sure our demands are consistently heard through tabling parliamentary questions, and organising meetings with ministers across the UK
- We’ve got meetings planned with MPs throughout the autumn to make sure your demands are heard.
We couldn’t have done this without you
Everything we’ve achieved couldn’t have been done without you, our dedicated supporters. Whether you signed our petition, wrote to your elected representatives, kindly donated, or joined us in-person – thank you so much.
