Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month: November

Pancreatic cancer affects over 8,000 patients a year and touches the lives of many more. Despite being the fifth leading cause of cancer death in the UK it is not well known, it’s still poorly understood by many, including some medical professionals and, it has been chronically under-funded for decades.

See why pancreatic cancer is in dire need of publicity:

 Did you know?

• Pancreatic cancer kills 22 people a day in the UK
• 5-year survival rates haven’t changed in over 40 years
• Over 50% of people in our survey hadn’t heard of pancreatic cancer before they were diagnosed
• We have some of the worst 1-year survival rates in Europe – a sign of later diagnosis here in the UK

We need more people to be made aware of the signs and symptoms of pancreatic cancer so more can be diagnosed in time for surgery – currently the only potential for a cure.

What you can do

• Wear purple on Pancreatic Cancer Action Day (1st November) – see below
• Throughout the month, hand out leaflets, put up posters and host information stands
• Arrange talks at work, at clubs and pubs schools/university
• Share stories and speak to the media
• Raise money
• Campaign for increased investment into pancreatic cancer

We will provide leaflets and posters to you free of charge – call us on 0303 040 1770 (costs the same as a local call no matter where you live) or email enquiries@panact.org

Click on the link for more fundraising for pancreatic cancer ideas and download our Fundraising Tool Kit for ideas and advice. See how others have been fundraising for us

We also have t-shirts, balloons, pansy lapel badges and wristbands and pens to order – see below for more information.

Merchandise Available to order or via our online shop

Go to the Pancreatic Cancer Action shop to purchase your merchandise or order your free posters and leaflets

We have a range of merchandise available for you to order to help with your awareness/fund-raising event. They include:

• Pansy lapel badges ( £1);
• T-shirts in S, M,L & XL sizes (£5 each)
• Silicone wristbands ( £1)
• Balloons (free)
• Posters (free)
• Leaflets (free)

Need inspiration? Then download our Fundraising Toolkit.

Suggestions for Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month Include:

Wear purple to work/clubs/pubs/school/college:

Encourage your friends and colleagues to do the same and collect donations for PCA. You don’t need to be head-to-toe in purple, but the more you can wear, the greater the impact! We have PCA t-shirts to purchase (£5 each) and can send out balloons, posters and leaflets to you free of charge (see below).

Hold a purple cupcake sale

We have a fabulous purple cupcake recipe on our website and the photo right (Courtesy of Nat Essex) shows how it can be done!

Put on a “Purple Party”

Theme your party with purple and dance the night away while at the same time raising awareness and much needed funds for PCA.

Hold a sponsored silence

To reflect the fact that pancreatic cancer is often described as a ‘silent cancer’ a sponsored silence is a good way to illustrate this and raise funds at the same time

Put the date in the diary & let us know what you are planning! We also have a full list of ideas for awareness events.

During the month you can also…

Put up an awareness/information stand at work or school

Also if you are a medical professional, why not put one up in clinic or if you are a patient, why not ask if you can put one up in the foyer of your local hospital (near the cafe is always good for passing visitors!) We have a range of posters for the 2012 campaign which we can send out to you free of charge or for you to download along with leaflets and we can also send you other merchandise such as balloons.

Hold a purple -themed event

Be it a gala ball, a quiz night, bridge-night, karaoke evening, fashion show, purple golf tournament….the options are endless.

Encourage local shops in your High Street to dress their window displays in purple

This worked well in Haslemere, Surrey last year when we got in touch with the local Chamber of Commerce who were very helpful in spreading the word about the awareness week (now a month). Retailers don’t have to have the display up for a month, instead a week around our Pancreatic Cancer Action Day (1st November) would be ideal.