Our Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month 2024 highlights

Every month, over 800 UK families experience the often unexpected and devastating loss of a loved one to pancreatic cancer.

This simply isn’t good enough.   

Every year in the UK, there are around 10,500 new pancreatic cancer cases, yet only 10% of patients are diagnosed in time for life-saving surgery.

Sadly, data shows that GPs are not spotting symptoms early enough. Despite being one of the deadliest of all common cancers, with a 5-year survival rate of less than 8%, patients will visit their GP an average of 4 times before being diagnosed. 

Early diagnosis not only matters, it is the only way to save lives. 

To address this, and in addition to encouraging the nation to check for symptoms through the #MISSEDmoments campaign, we continue to work tirelessly with our GP community to deliver specialist training and advice. 

The creation of our #MISSEDmoments campaign was made possible by the wonderful support we received from Free Partners, who gifted their time and expertise to create the campaign as part of their Free Love initiative.  

The #MISSEDmoments campaign has enabled us to raise awareness of pancreatic cancer and its symptoms throughout November.  

In addition to the campaign, we were overwhelmed by the support we received and the number of events and activities that happened all over the country.

💜 Our #MISSEDmoments campaign brought 94,000 new people to our website in November, with over 72,000 people visiting the campaign’s page, which means more people are becoming aware of the symptoms of pancreatic cancer through Pancreatic Cancer Action.

💜 Our online adverts also saw fantastic numbers, with over 15 million people being shown our pancreatic cancer awareness raising adverts across the internet. From these, nearly 70,000 people clicked through to our website to learn more about pancreatic cancer.

💜 Personal stories played a central role in the campaign’s success. Over 700,000 people watched our #MISSEDmoments videos, which showcased photographs of real people lost to pancreatic cancer. These photos served as a touching tribute to loved ones while highlighting the importance of early diagnosis and symptom awareness.

💜 We’ve had incredible support from a number of those affected by pancreatic cancer, featuring as case studies and sharing their stories with the media for us.

💜 We’ve had incredible media coverage including features on BBC Breakfast, ITV News, BBC News, Capital Radio, Heart FM, Smooth Radio, BBC Radio, Yahoo UK, Sky News and many more.

💜 We worked with legendary The Smiths drummer Mike Joyce to create and launch an incredible mural in memory of their bassist, Andy Rourke, on World Pancreatic Cancer Day in Manchester.  Andy died of pancreatic cancer last year and this mural will create a lasting legacy to him and will continue to raise funds via the QR code that sits alongside it.

💜 People across the UK joined us to Turn it Purple by hosting Wear it Purple days and events, Bake it Purple cake bakes and sales and by hosting donation boxes or collections tins to help us Raise it Purple.  Thank you so much to each and every fundraiser!

💜 We did a focused awareness campaign in North East England because in a recent survey, over 75% of respondents living here could not name a single symptom of pancreatic cancer. As well as media work and social media advertising, we distributed pharmacy bags through, coffee cups and washroom panels all raising awareness of the symptoms of pancreatic cancer. We also displayed our new #MISSEDmoments campaign throughout the Tyne and Wear Metro. With around 37 million passengers a year, this presented the perfect opportunity to raise awareness! During November, these could have been seen by as many as 2.3 million people!

💜 We took over Glasgow Central Station on World Pancreatic Cancer Day, meeting supporters, sharing stories, raising awareness, and collecting donations. Over 100,000 people passed through the station and we raised £3591. This event was only possible thanks to organiser Lesley Irving, one of our incredible volunteers who also put together a programme of entertainment throughout the day, including performances by a rock choir!  

💜 In Scotland we lobbied Members of the Scottish Parliament, who hosted a debate at Holyrood on the 5th November to support Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month. It was hugely successful and the most passionate debate so far!

💜Our brightly coloured ‘PanCanVan’ was used at activities across the central belt of Scotland, with symptoms on the side helping raise awareness in different locations.

💜With thanks to our friends at Tunnock’s, we were able to share over 1,000 special limited-edition purple wrapped teacakes with supporters and members of the public, helping open more conversations about pancreatic cancer and the importance of early diagnosis.

💜We held awareness stands in Hospitals, community centres and shopping centres where we spoke to patients and the public about the importance of symptom awareness.  

💜 Our fundraising team was out in force at Leeds Train Station, and with the help of some fantastic volunteers they collected donations and met some amazing people who stopped to speak to the team about their own pancreatic cancer stories. 

💜 With light-ups all across the UK, this year was the biggest yet for Purple Lights UK. Supporters lit up their homes and arranged for their local landmarks to light up purple to spotlight a disease that deserves more attention. 

💜 As a proud member of the World Pancreatic Cancer Coalition, we joined 100 organisations from over 40 countries and six continents, in celebrating and promoting World Pancreatic Cancer Day on 21st November. This year’s campaign, ‘Hello Pancreas’ helped elevate global awareness and bring greater attention to this deadly disease. 

There are so many incredible activities and events that happened throughout November, that it’s impossible to list them all here. These are just some of the highlights we wanted to share with you.

You can find lots more featured on our social media channels.  

Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month is vital in the fight to raise awareness of the symptoms and to ensure early diagnosis and save lives.  

Thank you for your continued support and for helping us fight this deadly disease. 

Joe