Pancreatic Cancer Action is 15

  • Written by Louise Lowman
  • Posted: 3 July 2025
  • 7 min read
  • Charity News

The successes and impact of Pancreatic Cancer Action

How many did you know about?

Making milestones in survival rates and hospital funding

Since 2010, when Pancreatic Cancer Action was formed, the pancreatic cancer 5-year survival rate increased from 3% to just over 7%. Before 2010 there had been no movement in 5-year survival of the disease for almost 50 years.
We funded the first dietician post at the Royal Surrey Hospital to help support pancreatic cancer survivors’ dietary needs. This post evidenced how important this role was in preventing patients being admitted for other issues and ultimately saved the NHS money. Recognising the importance of such roles, the NHS now funds these posts.

Accessible healthcare education and online learning 

We produced the world’s first CPD-accredited e-learning modules on pancreatic cancer for GPs, hospital doctors, pharmacists, and pharmacy teams. Since their launch, tens of thousands of GPs have benefited from our free specialist training.
We are the only pancreatic cancer charity in the UK to work with, and be accredited by, the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) to develop free online training on pancreatic cancer.

Resources for GPs

We are the only pancreatic cancer charity in the UK that offers specialist free e-learning for pharmacists and pharmacy teams. Our vital training is hosted by the prestigious Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS), alongside British Oncological Pharmaceutical Association (BOPA), the NHS Learning Hub and ELE Learn.
Thousands of pharmacists and pharmacy teams have taken part in our free e-learning. Many of those feeling unwell with non-specific symptoms associated with pancreatic cancer may visit the pharmacy to self-medicate. A pharmacist with a regular customer base is well placed to spot escalating symptoms, refer patients and save lives.

Resources for pharmacists

We have provided over 7,500 free GP and Pharmacy education and training resource packs to help support earlier diagnosis of pancreatic cancer.
We have invested over £300,000 in research into early diagnosis.


Seed-funding schemes, patient support and research funding

Our Early Diagnosis Challenge Award scheme has seed-funded several innovative and unique projects investigating the early diagnosis of pancreatic cancer, some of which have gone on to receive millions in further funding and others have directly led to changes within the NHS.

NHS initiative to find pancreatic cancer patients earlier

Galleri Blood Test for Cancer | Pancreatic Cancer Awareness | PCA

Ground-Breaking Development in Gene Detection | Pancreatic Cancer

We fund a clinical nurse specialist to support patients and their families from the day of their diagnosis, as well as supporting recruitment onto vital clinical trial research programmes and educating other healthcare professionals.

Our Clinical Nurse Specialist | Pancreatic Cancer Awareness | PCA

We are the only pancreatic cancer charity to offer PIF Tick-certified patient information booklets. PIF Tick is the UK-wide quality mark for patient information, so you can trust the high-quality, clearly communicated, evidence-based healthcare information.

We have sent over 30,000 patient information booklets. By listening to patients, carers and relatives we provide a suite of booklets and a specialist cookbook. Our free booklets can be viewed or downloaded online or sent directly to patients and their families.

From awareness to advocacy: how our campaigning has helped communities

We successfully advocated for changes to NICE Guidelines, ensuring that all those in England, Wales and Northern Ireland over the age of 60 who present with weight loss and new-onset diabetes will now be automatically referred for a CT-Scan to check for pancreatic cancer.

Diabetes Awareness Week 2024 | Pancreatic Cancer Awareness |

GPs across England now have the ability to make direct referrals for CT scans. At the start of 2022, only 21% of GPs in England could make direct referrals for a CT scan. However, thanks to PCA campaigning, every GP team in England is now able to directly order CT scans and ultrasounds and the Scottish Government have indicated they will also be adopting our proposals.

We have been lobbying to empower pharmacists to be able to make direct referrals for those with red-flag cancer symptoms. In a huge win for Pancreatic Cancer Action and patients, the UK Government has committed to rolling out these powers.

PCA Campaigning For Change | Pancreatic Cancer Action | PCA

We funded groundbreaking research into the connection between diabetes and pancreatic cancer.

Medical Breakthrough | PCA | Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month

We contributed to the development of a full audit of the pancreatic cancer patient journey through NHS England.

We enabled access to pancreatic cancer drugs.
We launched a campaign with the aim of getting the Department of Health and NHS England to reinstate Abraxane®, a drug that extends the life of some patients with pancreatic cancer. We demonstrated outside the Department of Health and launched a petition which received over 40,000 signatures. Abraxane® has since been reinstated and is available to patients across the country.

We contributed to the development of the Scottish Government Cancer Strategy and Action Plan, and the update of the Scottish Referral Guidelines for Suspected Cancer.

Scottish Cancer Strategy | Pancreatic Cancer Awareness | PCA

We developed patient resources for those with genetic mutations and for patients whose first language is not English.

We supported the issue of a new case-finding protocol that will identify patients more quickly and accelerate diagnosis for those with new-onset diabetes and weight loss.

Following on from our success in changing NICE Guidance for those with weight loss and new-onset Type 2 diabetes. The NHS is partnering with a cancer alliance to establish a new algorithm to identify these patients faster and speed up a diagnosis as not everyone will present at their GP practice. There is an estimated 850,000 cases of undiagnosed cases of Type 2 diabetes in the UK.

We have driven high-profile, hard-hitting, symptom awareness campaigns across the UK, with some achieving global reach. Campaigns such as the globally-recognised and award-winning ‘I Wish I Had…’ campaign, Pancreas not Penis’, #MISSEDmoments and our award-nominated #MISSED campaign have all reached millions of people and undoubtedly saved lives. They were all vital in opening up more conversations about pancreatic cancer and the importance of symptom awareness and early diagnosis.

We campaign tirelessly for the government to keep its promise of delivering 6,000 extra GPs in England. The data shows that GPs are not spotting symptoms early enough, but with the workforce overworked and overstretched, the extra 6,000 GPs would help GPs more time to spend on diagnosis and education.

As well as 6,000 more GPs, we are calling for every UK GP to improve their knowledge of pancreatic cancer by completing our accredited GP e-learning course. We know the difficulty of identifying symptoms of pancreatic cancer which can be vague and difficult to identify even for the most experienced healthcare professionals.

We lobbied to expand the current targeted lung health checks to cover pancreatic cancer.

The NHS Lung Health Check is a service offered that aims to help diagnose lung cancer at an earlier stage, when treatment may be more successful. It was agreed that our proposals would be piloted in Yorkshire, and at-risk cohorts will be offered an extra scan covering the kidney and pancreas, adding only adds 10 -15 seconds to the overall procedure.

We deliver Awareness Talks to businesses and community groups, helping to raise awareness of pancreatic cancer, its signs and its symptoms.

It is estimated that by 2030, there will be more than a million people of working age living with cancer in the UK. It has never been more vital to raise awareness of cancer in the workplace amongst workers and employers.

On the road raising awareness in the Pancreatic Cancer Action branded PanCan Van.

Our regional awareness campaign work

We conducted the largest ever pancreatic cancer symptom awareness campaign in Wales, PC Aware Wales.

Raising awareness of pancreatic cancer in Wales | PCA

We conducted the largest pancreatic cancer public awareness campaign in Northern Ireland in conjunction with Northern Ireland Pancreatic Cancer (NIPanC), a charity we helped establish to undertake focused work, as Northern Ireland had one of the lowest survival rates in the UK.

NIPanC and PCAware | Pancreatic Cancer Awareness | PCA
Taking Action in Northern Ireland | Pancreatic Cancer Awareness | PCA

In addition to our UK-wide activities, we continue to undertake targeted symptoms awareness campaigns in areas with some of the lowest pancreatic cancer survival rates in the UK. Some of our most recent campaigns took place in the East End of Glasgow and North East England.

Glasgow Awareness Week | Pancreatic Cancer Awareness | PCA

North East England Awareness | Pancreatic Cancer Action | PCA

How our partnerships and coalitions drive collaborative change

We are a founding member of the World Pancreatic Cancer Coalition and the World Pancreatic Cancer Day Committee. As well as a founding member of PC Europe. 

We are proud to work collaboratively with many partnerships and coalitions across the UK. Working with these groups enables us to provide a stronger voice for the pancreatic cancer community, patients, and families. It also allows us to share valuable ideas, opinions and goals, enabling change across all four nations.

Partnerships and coalitions | Pancreatic Cancer Awareness | PCA


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We simply could not have achieved any of this without the incredible generosity of our supporters.

But times are tough in the charity sector right now. Please donate today and help us continue our vital work.
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