Stand with Mihika to fight for early diagnosis

You may recognise Mihika as one of the faces of our Unite, Diagnose, Save Lives campaign that launched last week. Like so many of our loved ones, Mihika’s husband Jay heard these devastating words when he was finally diagnosed;

“Sorry it’s too late. We can’t save you.”

Jay died just 7 months later, leaving Mihika and their six-year-old son Kal behind.

Mihika is bravely sharing her story with us to stop other families having to be told the heart breaking news that there’s nothing that can be done to save them.

Jay called his GP a dozen times about unexplained symptoms before he was finally diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in July 2021. By then it was too late to save his life. The cancer had spread to his liver and he was given just three to six months to make precious memories with his family. If Jay had been diagnosed a couple of months earlier, he could still be here.

There are no simple diagnostic tests to help doctors detect the disease, meaning 80% of people with pancreatic cancer are diagnosed too late for life-saving treatment. “Sorry” isn’t good enough. People affected by pancreatic cancer deserve more.

So many strong and determined people have already signed their names to stand with us and our researchers in the fight for an early diagnosis breakthrough. A simple test to diagnose pancreatic cancer must be a reality – like it is for other cancers.

We need to understand how to diagnose pancreatic cancer earlier to give more people a chance of survival. It’s unacceptable that more than half of people diagnosed with pancreatic cancer die within 3 months.

However, pancreatic cancer has been historically underfunded with only 3% of the annual UK cancer research budget being directed towards pancreatic cancer. With your support during this campaign, we can tackle early diagnosis.

Thanks to our incredible supporters, Pancreatic Cancer UK has always been committed to researching and improving early diagnosis. Through our Early Diagnosis Research Alliance (EDRA), we have brought together the best minds in early diagnosis, bringing fresh new perspectives to address key challenges so that we can achieve earlier diagnosis in pancreatic cancer, faster.

This represents the single biggest investment in early diagnosis with pancreatic cancer in the UK.

This pioneering research is close to the biggest and most exciting breakthrough we’ve ever seen – the first effective test to detect pancreatic cancer in the blood. Preliminary results show that the test is currently showing greater than 95% accuracy in early trials, meaning we are one step closer to making progress on one of the biggest challenges in pancreatic cancer research and ultimately, saving more lives.

But now it’s time to step it up a level. More work is needed to take any breakthroughs out of the lab and into the hands of GPs. Your committed support will continue to be critical to help us maintain momentum and spearhead the next stage of ground-breaking research into early diagnosis.

Survival rates have barely changed in 50 years. If nothing changes, in the next decade, a further 65,000 people diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and their families will be told there’s nothing that can be done to save them.

We’re on the cusp of a breakthrough – stand with us to fight for early diagnosis.