COMMENT
ANOTHER day, another set of gloomy statistics.
Today’s new figures, from the UK’s National Cancer Research Institute, project a devastating 24 per cent drop in the UK’s overall cancer research spending this year, driven by a 46 per cent fall in charity sector funding.
These figures are a warning light for the health and future of UK research.
That’s because unlike other countries, where government and industry funding dominate, the UK is unique in its prominent, well- integrated charity funded research sector.
Sadly, this strength has become a vulnerability in a global pandemic, with the public’s ability to fundraise severely impacted.
But while sobering, this drop doesn’t come as a surprise for us at Cancer Research UK. We know first- hand that the vibrant charity- funded research sector has been heavily hit.
The urgent case for Government support becomes clearer by the day. To risk disrupting the UK’s intricate network of universities, charities and small and large companies would be incredibly short- sighted. It has an outstanding track record of developing innovations that prevent, diagnose, and treat cancer around the world.
In the UK, survival has doubled since the Seventies, and now half of people survive their disease for a decade or more.