GIVING BACK TIME
Following a century of progress, you can fund the future of Cancer Research UK by leaving a gift in your Will
C ancer Research UK has been fighting cancer for more than 100 years. Cancer survival is improving and has doubled over the last 40 years. Gifts in Wills fund over one third of the charity’s life-saving research, helping it become the largest independent funder of cancer research in the world, and the only one to research more than 200 cancer types. So if you make that pledge to leave something behind, your legacy could help save millions of lives. To see the impact you could make, take a look at a timeline of some of the charity’s greatest achievements in the continuing quest to beat cancer.
1938 – Hormone treatments for prostate cancer
Cancer Research UK scientists develop the first ever man-made hormone, which would treat people with advanced prostate cancer for more than 40 years, paving the way for today’s hormone therapies.
1948 – The first ever chemotherapy drugs
Professor Alexander Haddow discovers new chemicals based on mustard gas, leading the charity to develop three important chemotherapy drugs. These drugs are still used today to treat some cancers affecting the blood and immune system.
1963 – A major breakthrough against choriocarcinoma
The charity’s researchers transform the outlook for women with a rare cancer linked with pregnancy by using a combination of two drugs. Survival for choriocarcinoma doubled within a few years, and today almost all women are cured.
1991 – A boost in the battle against bowel cancer
Cancer Research UK scientists help develop the drug raltitrexed – the first new drug for bowel cancer for 35 years. Raltitrexed is still used today to treat bowel cancer that has spread to other parts of the body.
1995 – A new drug for prostate cancer
Cancer Research UK envisions what would later become the drug abiraterone, with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence approving the drug in 2012. Around 47% of Cancer Research UK’s research funding is spent on basic biology, so more discoveries like this can translate into treatments.
2008 – A brighter future for families
A Cancer Research UK trial shows how a new drug increases survival to almost 70% for children whose acute lymphoblastic leukaemia has returned.
2019 – We must do more
Cancer survival may have doubled over the last 40 years, but we cannot be complacent. The fact remains that half of us in the UK born after 1960 will be diagnosed with cancer in our lifetime. Cancer Research UK receives no government funding, so that’s why gifts left in Wills are so important, as they fund a third of the vital research.