Funding the fightback
Stories like Paul’s show how vital Cancer Research UK’s work is, and demonstrate the importance of gifts in Wills in helping the charity to save lives
Paul was diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukemia in 2007 at the age of 34. He’s about to mark 15 years since his diagnosis, and is celebrating the fact that his check-ups are every three months now, instead of every month.
Paul was on holiday in the US with his fiancée Emma when he was diagnosed. “I’d had a cough and blurred vision, but it wasn’t until my eyesight deteriorated dramatically that I was given an MRI scan and received the devastating news that I had cancer,” he says. “I was immediately prescribed a drug called Glivec and continued to take this for a further 22 months.
“Emma and I married in May 2008, five months after my diagnosis and we now run our own fire safety business. As a former fire-fighter, it came as a shock to me when my own life needed saving. I am both humbled and eternally grateful to Cancer Research UK and its supporters.” The charity’s scientists carried out the early genetics work that underpinned the development of Glivec, which is an effective treatment not just against leukemia, but also against certain rare stomach cancers as well.
“Emma and I now have a lovely boy called Freddie, who is nine and keeps us living life to the full.” Paul is also proud to be able to leave a legacy so more cases like his have a positive outcome. “You don’t get a chance to say thank you in person to a scientist who played a part in saving your life! Leaving a legacy gift in your Will not only says thank you, but may also improve the chances of future generations.”
A history of progress
Ever since the launch of its predecessor, the Imperial Cancer Research Fund, 120 years ago, Cancer Research UK has been striving to improve the outcomes of everyone diagnosed with cancer.
The charity has played a key role in the progress that has already seen survival in the UK double in the last 40 years, including pioneering treatments such as radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Today, 2 in 4 people survive their cancer for at least 10 years1.
But it wants to go further, and faster. By supporting Cancer Research UK with a gift in your Will, the charity will be able to continue to fund transformative research that will make a lasting impact long into the future. A third of the organisation’s research is funded by gifts in Wills, and so much of this work simply wouldn’t be possible without them.
Decades of striving
One of the first big leaps forward in understanding the biology of leukaemia came in the 1970s when the charity’s scientists were able to show there are different types of the disease for the first time, leading to the development of more targeted treatments. By 1977 there was increased research into bone marrow stem cells, and how they can cause and affect blood cancers. But it was 1982 that would prove a watershed year for leukaemia treatment with the development of imatinib, also known as Glivec. This was the first genetically tailored cancer drug, developed thanks in part to Cancer Research UK, and it helped scientists track down a genetic fault that fuels almost all cases of chronic myeloid leukaemia, which imatinib targets. Just 10 years ago, Cancer Research UK scientists transformed the treatment for acute myeloid leukaemia by trialling a combination of chemotherapy drugs that has been used ever since.
Gifts in Wills have helped fund breakthroughs in the past and will continue to shape the research of the future.
1 Cancer Research UK, cancerresearchuk.org/healthprofessional/cancer-statistics/survival, Accessed July 2022
2 Ahmad AS et al, British Journal of Cancer, 2015
“Without the work of Cancer Research UK, my life may have not only been so much harder, but inevitably so much shorter; that’s why I am saying thank you with a gift in my Will”