Tuesday 8 August 2017

Cancer Research UK Annual Review 2016/2017

This is one of my favourite blogs to do every year!

A frequent question myself and other CRUK volunteers are asked is "where does my donation go?" People are aware that millions are donated every year but many aren't aware of what these funds are spent on. CRUK have released their annual review and, as usual, I'm going to break it down so that people can see where the money is going.

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. The other 20p is used to raise funds for the future

Let me first point out that CRUK does not receive any government funding for their research. Government funds for medical research are spent via the Medical Research Council and National Institue for Health Research. CRUK is an independent medical research charity so the money spent on our research is all generated by our supporters.

£647 Million was raised by CRUK Supporters between April 2016 and March 2017:
*£187 Million was raised by legacies (People leaving money in their wills)
*£190 Million was raised by regular donations (there are over 1 million people making regular donations)
*£102 Million was raised by trading (the CRUK shops)
*£65 Million was raised by over 600,000 people taking part in events (for example Race for Life, Shine, Dryathlon etc…..)
*92 Million was raised by Royalties and Grants (Royalties = generated from treatments developed by CRUK, Grants = received by CRUK institutes)
*11Million was raised in other forms – i.e. investments and rental income from the lease of a lab.

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.

£432 Million was spent on Research between April 2016 and March 2017:
*112 Million was spent on researching the biology of cancer
*43 Million was spent on lung cancer research
*35 Million was spent on bowel cancer research
*33 Million was spent on breast cancer research
*22 Million was spent on prostate cancer research
*18 Million was spent on leukaemia cancer research
*17 Million was spent on pancreatic cancer research
*13 Million was spent on brain cancer research
*13 Million was spent on ovarian cancer research
*13 Million was spent on over 100 cancers including stomach and testicular
*12 Million was spent on oesophageal cancer research
*12 Million was spent on melanoma research
*9 Million was spent on non Hodgkin lymphoma research
*5 Million was spent on sarcoma research
*4 Million was spent on liver cancer research
*4 Million was spent on myeloma research
*4 Million was spent on bladder cancer research
*4 Million was spent on kidney cancer research
*4 Million was spent on neuroblastoma research
*3 Million was spent on cervical cancer research
*3 Million was spent on skin cancer (excluding melanoma) research
*3 Million was spent on pharyngeal cancer research

If you are upset or concerned that not enough is being spent on a particular cancer type, please be reassured that the National Cancer Research Institute (NCRI) is there to spread research throughout it’s partners and make sure research is not being duplicated by charities – so a cancer type particularly close to your heart may be receiving more research from another charity partner within the NCRI.

The rest of the CRUK funds for this financial year were spent like this:
*41 Million was spent on information and policy work such as early diagnosis, prevention, campaigning, communicating health messages and engaging patients, the public and health professionals
*108 Million was spent on fundraising such as marketing to engage new supporters and developing new ways to fundraise
*85 Million was spent on trading costs such as stock, rent, electricity and salaries for CRUK shops and their managers.

Improving Fundraising:
It is important to note that since July 2017 CRUK has become an opt in charity, which means supporters are asked if they wish to give the charity permission to contact them before asking for more support – if you choose to not give permission then you will not receive any marketing or fundraising requests from the charity.

Key Stats:
*over 40,000 volunteers (like me!) gave millions of hours to the charity during the last year.
*12,000 queries were answered by the Helpline nurses
*220 clinical trials were supported by CRUK across the UK
*12,000 face to face engagements with healthcare organisations took place during the year.4
*2.6 Million read the CRUK science blog
*15.7 Million pounds were raised during the third Stand Up To Cancer TV show.
*770 People (like me!) joined the Patient Involvement Network to help improve CRUK’s work
*116 PHD students started working for CRUK this year

If you would like to know more specific information, including the successes the charity had during this financial year, please check the annual review, which is available to download on the CRUK website.


A huge thank you to everyone that supports CRUK every year – we are making progress!!