Early warning systems

Leave a gift in your Will to Cancer Research UK and help its scientists find new ways to detect cancer earlier

Diagnosing cancer earlier saves lives. It increases the chances of a successful treatment and reduces the likelihood of long-term side effects.

But finding new ways to spot cancer early can be difficult, which is why nearly half (46%) of cancer patients in England are diagnosed when the disease is already advanced. Thanks to its supporters, Cancer Research UK is providing funding for scientists who are developing new devices to detect the early signs of cancer.

Devices like the Cytosponge – a new way to test for Barrett’s oesophagus, which is a condition that can increase your risk of developing oesophageal cancer. Currently, the test for Barrett’s oesophagus is an endoscopy, a procedure that’s both invasive and expensive. The Cytosponge test relies on a small sponge that collects cells from the patient’s oesophagus; it’s cheaper, easier to perform and, according to the results of clinical trials, can identify up to 10 times more people with Barrett’s oesophagus than current GP care.

The Breath Biopsy®, a breathalyser, is another new technique being trialled by Cancer Research UKfunded scientist Professor Rebecca Fitzgerald, in collaboration with Owlstone Medical. It detects volatile molecules in a person’s breath that can indicate earlystage cancers, including bladder, breast and brain tumours.

New technologies like these are valuable tools for beating cancer, but they need funding. Without it doctors, scientists and researchers are unable to develop and test them. Cancer Research UK funds nearly 50% of all cancer research in the UK and the best way you can contribute to that funding is through a gift in your Will.

Gifts in Wills fund over a third of Cancer Research UK’s work. They’re vital to the charity and without them a lot of life-saving work wouldn’t happen. That’s why Cancer Research UK is so grateful to all the amazing people who help this way.

There are various types of gifts you can leave in your Will, such as a specific amount or item, but a ‘residuary’ gift is the most valuable. A residuary gift is a share or percentage of your estate that’s inflation-proof, so it will never lose value.

Catching the disease early offers the best chance of successful treatment. To do that we need better, which needs research, which needs funding, which needs you.