Cancer Research UK - Local Statistics

Happy Friday! A very quick post today!

The wonderful people at Cancer Research UK have created a way for you to find out the cancer statistics in your local area. It is a fantastic resource and I hope you find it useful and interesting!

http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/cancer-info/cancerstats/local-cancer-statistics/

Macmillan Campaigns: Sign the Petitions!

Happy Friday one and all! 

My blog has been full of information about Macmillan this week and I wanted to finish by highlighting a petition they are currently running within their campaigning team! 

Challenging the Caring Crisis:
As a family member that provided support to family members whilst they dealt with cancer, I assure you that cancer is an issue that affects the whole family. It is so important to make sure people don’t face their diagnosis and treatment alone. However, looking after someone with cancer is a tough thing to do and many carers are unaware of the support that is available for them.

There are around a million people in England who look after a loved one with cancer. Around 47% of those people feel as though they do not get enough support to enable them to do this well and only 5% are given a carers assessment by their local authority which then allows them access to this vital support.

The governments Care Bill allows Macmillan a chance to address these issues and make life easier for carers and in turn, those they look after. Macmillan need 5,000 people to sign their petition to support them in their quest to get the government to do all they can to tackle the issues with carers and their support.

Please click the link below to support this cause and sign the petition. Visit the Macmillan website for more information! 

http://campaigns.macmillan.org.uk/ea-action/action?ea.client.id=70&ea.campaign.id=20417&ea.url.id=163096&ea.campaigner.email=k7Tt0fBRvVGZ39e%2Fm3TMLzd%2B0UfVops6Tss8MZl8XxA=&ea_broadcast_target_id=0

Macmillan Nurses

One thing that I consistently hear from cancer sufferers and loved ones is that the Macmillan nurses are angels. These very special people spend their time dealing with people in a horrific situation but they do so with compassion, dignity and care. That takes a very special person and I wanted to shine a light on these amazing people today.

You need to be a registered nurse with at least five years of experience (with two years cancer or palliative care experience) in order to become a Macmillan nurse. They also undergo highly specialised training in managing pain and other symptoms as well as how to provide psychological support.

Macmillan nurse are usually employed within the NHS but funded by Macmillan, usually for three years. After those three years they are normally funded by the NHS or a partner organisation. The nurses work within the NHS and aren’t usually involved with private healthcare. The nurses don’t usually deal with routine nursing tasks.

Types of Macmillan Nurses:

Some of the Macmillan nurses have certain areas that they specialise in:

Macmillan Chemotherapy Nurse – These nurses administer chemotherapy to patients and help them deal with the side effects.

Macmillan Breast Cancer Nurse – These nurses provide support for breast cancer patients from the time of the screening and diagnosis right through their treatment and beyond. They provide help for the women in making informed decisions as well as providing practical and emotional support for women coming to terms with a mastectomy.

Macmillan Paediatric Nurse – These nurses provide help and support for children with cancer as well as their loved ones. They provide this support at home and in hospital. They also aim to keep the child at home with their loved ones as much as possible.

Macmillan Lead Nurse – These nurses are senior nurse managers and help shape the future of cancer and palliative care services in their area.

How to Get a Macmillan Nurse:

If you want or need a Macmillan nurse then please speak to your GP  as you will need them to refer you.  You can also be referred by your hospital consultant, district nurse or a hospital ward sister. Please don’t hesitate to ask someone about Macmillan nurses and their availability in your area. Macmillan nurses are based across the UK but there are alternative services available in the event that there aren’t nurses available in your area.

Funding for Macmillan Nurses:

Macmillan nurses are funded 100% by donations to Macmillan Cancer Support. They provide a hugely vital service that many rely on during the toughest period of their lives. Please do donate what you can to Macmillan to keep this amazing service available to as many people as possible.

Please contact Macmillan for further information on their nurses.

Charity Showcase: Macmillan Cancer Support

I tend to focus a lot on Cancer Research UK because of my close connections to the charity but I wanted to use this post to shine a light on another incredible charity: Macmillan Cancer Support.

Whilst Cancer Research UK focuses on the research side of things, Macmillan is more about supporting people affected by cancer. Their website states: “Macmillan Cancer Support improves the lives of people affected by cancer. One in three of us will get cancer. We are all affected by cancer. We can all help. We are Macmillan.”

An Introduction to Macmillan and their Aims

Research into cancer means that more and more people are now surviving the disease. These people need practical, emotional and financial support. This is where Macmillan comes in.

“We are a Source of Support: Macmillan help with the things cancer patients need during their illness but they also help the loved ones who are trying to support someone through cancer. They guide people through the system and support them at every stage. They fund nurses, they build cancer centres and they fund specialist health professionals but they focus on the emotional and practical side of the disease – not just the medical side. Macmillan help with things like getting to and from the hospital, arranging carers and listening to people when they just need someone to talk to.

“We are a Force for Change”: Macmillan pride themselves on listening to those that have been affected by cancer and working with them to improve the system of cancer care. “People who live with cancer are experts by experience”. They use the knowledge gained by these patients to try and make a positive impact on the lives of people affected by cancer. This could be something as simple as getting a coffee machine for a hospital waiting area or it could be something like changing the law. They also fight discrimination and inequality within cancer care such as fighting to improve the benefits system for cancer patients and challenging unfair parking costs. Their website states: How much a person earns, where they live, their age, faith, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation and whether they have a disability should not be a deciding factor on the type of services they can access and the quality of their experience.”

“We are Macmillan”: Macmillan aim to improve the lives of everyone affected by cancer. That is not a small task at all –they must like a challenge! They also want to inspire people to join in and try to help through donations and volunteering. Over two million people in the UK are living with cancer as we speak and Macmillan want to make sure all of them have help dealing with treatment issues, money worries and anything else they may need during their illness.

A History of Macmillan

Macmillan began in 1911 when Douglas Macmillan set up the “Society for the Prevention and Relief of Cancer” after seeing his father die of cancer. He wanted to be able to provide low cost information and advice for all people with cancer as well as provide voluntary nurses to look after patients in their own homes. Macmillan wanted to provide information on recognising the signs of cancer, preventing cancer and treating cancer to patients, medical professionals and members of the public.

A Macmillan Timeline:

1911 – Douglas Macmillan establishes “The Society for the Prevention and Relief of Cancer”

1924 – The charity changes its name to “National Society for Cancer Relief” and becomes a Benevolent Society. It aims to provide practical helps for those affected by cancer.

1930 – The first paid member of staff begins work for the charity.

1934 – Bath becomes the first town to have a local committee.

1969 – The charity makes its first contributions towards hospices and begins to support inpatients.

1975 – The first Macmillan nurses are funded and the first Macmillan Cancer Care Unit is built and fitted with equipment.

1978 – There are now ten Macmillan nurses available.

1980 - £2.5 million is spent expanding the availability of Macmillan nurses across the UK. An educational programme is launched to teach advanced pain control and cancer care to doctors, nurses and students across the UK.

1986 – The first Macmillan doctor is funded

1989 (my year of birth!!) – The charity changes its name to “Cancer Relief Macmillan Fund”

1991 – The Macmillan Nurses Appeal is launched with the aim of raising £20 million.

1993 (Georgie’s year of birth!) – There are now a THOUSAND Macmillan nurses

1994 – The charity pioneers “10 Minimum Standards of Care” as part of the UK wide breast cancer campaign.

1995 – The first directory of UK Breast Cancer Services is developed and distributed to GP’s.

1996 – The charity pioneers “6 Minimum Standards of Care” for gynaecological cancers.

1997 – The charity changes its name to “Macmillan Cancer Relief”. The information helpline launches and helps more than 11,000 people in its first year of operation.

1998 –The Macmillan National Institute of Education (MNIE) is opened with ten lecturers to provide training for specialist cancer care professionals.

1999 – “A Voice for Life” is launched to help people affected by cancer have their say. The charity also lobbies the Oxford English Dictionary and successfully gets them to change their incorrect definition of cancer.

2000 – There are now two thousand Macmillan nurses.

2001 – Macmillan merges with the charity Cancerlink, which formerly provided support for people affected by cancer.

2002 – The Macmillan Cancerline is launched and merges with the Macmillan Information Line as well as the Cancerlink information services.

2003 – A social care strategy is implemented to focus on supporting carers as well as providing financial support and advice.

2004 – The charity launches their biggest ever campaign asking for better financial help for people dealing with cancer. The Macmillan Benefits Line is launched.

2005 – There are now more then 3,500 Macmillan health professionals providing care and support.

2006 – The charity changes its name to Macmillan Cancer Support

2008 – The charity merges with Cancerbackup to provide high quality and expert information about cancer as well as make it available for everyone who needs it.

2009 – The integrated phone line is launched to allow people affected by cancer to just call one number and get all the help and support they need.

I hope this has been an informative post about this amazing charity. They do so many amazing things and have seen so much progression in a relatively short space of time when you think about it. Please do visit their website for more information.  http://www.macmillan.org.uk/Home.aspx

Cancer Research UK - Yearly Progress

A question I hear a lot is “where does my donation go” or “with all the money that has been donated, how has a cure not been found yet?” The fact is that with over two hundred types of cancer, all behaving and reacting in different ways, a single cure for cancer is not possible. We will needs lots of cures. Lots of cures take time to research, test and produce. However charities make huge strides against cancer every year, especially Cancer Research UK, and it is hugely vital that we continue to donate what we can afford to help fund research into new ways to cure, treat and prevent cancer. I’m going to explain some of the facts and figures of the last financial year for CRUK in the hope that it will encourage more people to continue taking part in events and showing their generosity by supporting this wonderful charity.

Let me first explain that 80p of every £1 donated is spent on research. That is a huge amount and probably one of the best in the third sector. 

£460 million was raised last year.

*£143 million was donated through Legacies

*£109 million was raised through Direct Giving

*£75 million was raised through Events

*£73 million was raised through Shops

*£40 million was raised through Partnerships and Volunteers

*£19 million was raised through Major Giving and Appeals

*£1 million was raised through Other Means.

9/10 donations are less than £10 which goes to show that every penny really does count and giving what you can afford, even if it isn’t a lot, really can make a huge difference.

£351 million was given to research institutes, hospitals and universities across the UK by Cancer Research UK last year. 

£17 million was used to provide information for people affected by cancer, raise awareness of risks and symptoms and influencing health policy.

£128 million was spent on research and was split into cancer types:

*£41 million – Breast Cancer

*£32 million – Cervical, Kidney, Stomach, Testicular and over 100 more Cancer Types

*£27 million – Bowel Cancer

*£19 million – Prostate Cancer

*18 million – Leukaemia

*18 million – Skin Cancer

*£13 million – Lung Cancer

*£12 million – Ovarian Cancer

*£7 million – Non Hodgkins Lymphoma

*£6 million – Pancreatic Cancer

*£6 million – Oesophageal Cancer

*£6 million – Brain Cancer

*£5 million – Bladder Cancer

Four thousand researchers, doctors and nurses throughout the UK are funded with this money. 

It goes towards:

Improving Treatments: Scientists are always searching for less invasive and kinder treatment options to improve the patients quality of life both during their illness and after. The aim is to find treatments that have fewer side effects but are still as powerful. For example:

*Research has shown that thyroid cancer can be treated just as well with a lower dose of radioactive iodine. This lower dose means that patients can continue taking Thyroxin which helps manage side effects and speeds up recovery.

 *Scientists are currently researching whether or not chemotherapy before surgery can shrink bowel tumours enough to make them easier to remove and reduce the change of them returning.

Adapting Cancer Treatments: Sometimes it’s just a case of adapting an already established treatment to improve it or use it for something else. For example:

*Whilst over 70% of people survive rhabdomyosarcoma, most don’t respond to treatment should the cancer return. Research is being conducted to see if a drug originally developed to treat brain cancer can be used to help more people respond well to treatment if the cancer returns.

Combining Treatments: Sometimes treatments are found to be even more powerful when used together. For example:

*Professor Marais and his team have discovered that combining a lung cancer drug with an existing treatment may be able to provide more options for patients with malignant melanoma. They are planning to try this out on patients in the hopes of speeding up progress and helping more people survive malignant melanoma.

I hope this brief guide has shown you that a donation to Cancer Research UK, no matter how small, is very very worthwhile. Research is being conducted every single day and the money you donate is being put to good use! It is a long and complicated process but progress is made in small steps every single day and we are slowing edging towards the day when we can proclaim that cancer will soon be a thing of the past.

For more information on this please contact Cancer Research UK for a copy of their Annual Review (it can be downloaded from their website). It is a very interesting and informative read. www.canceresearchuk.org

xxx