Template Press Release: Get in touch with your local media about the Petition
You can copy and paste the template press release below into an email to local journalists to tell them about the petition. Remember to change the bold text.
You should find contact details for your local papers here. Alternatively, Google “the name of your local paper + news desk” and you should see the contact details for the editor.
If you need any help, please do not hesitate to get in touch with Natasha or Lu on 0303 040 1770.
Local campaigner asks for signatures to get life-extending drug back on the Cancer Drugs Fund
[name] in [area] is calling for signatures on a petition aimed at getting the government to reconsider the decision to remove Abraxane®, a life-extending drug for the treatment of pancreatic cancer, from the Cancer Drugs Fund.
Pancreatic cancer patients in the UK face some of the lowest survival rates in Europe with just 4% of patients surviving for five years or more. Abraxane, in combination with gemcitabine, could potentially double the number of patients who live two years or more (in comparison to those receiving gemcitabine alone).
Access to one of the first new drugs for treatment of pancreatic cancer in 20 years was removed by NHS England from the Cancer Drugs Fund on 4th September 2015. This move reduces an already limited choice of treatment options for pancreatic cancer patients in England, who account for 83% of patients in the UK, and restricts the ability of clinicians to prescribe a drug that has been proven to be clinically effective.
[name] said “[This quote is the place for you to write why you care about the petition and your connection to the disease.] Alternatively you could use or add this: “With this disease, patients and families have very little hope as it is. Currently, pancreatic cancer is the UK’s fifth biggest cancer killer with the lowest survival rate of all 21 common cancers. Almost 9,000 people are diagnosed with the disease each year, and they are faced with an average survival rate of just four to six months. Patients need more treatments not fewer.”
The petition was set up by the charity Pancreatic Cancer Action who are appalled by NHS England’s decision. Ali Stunt, chief executive of Pancreatic Cancer Action, said: “We set up this petition to send a clear message out to the government that this decision is completely immoral and unfair to patients in England. Abraxane is available to patients in Scotland, Wales and most of the Western world yet not England. This is not acceptable.
“We ask people to please sign this petition to ensure that this gets discussed in Parliament.”
The petition is available at: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/107388
Notes to editors
About Pancreatic Cancer Action
Pancreatic Cancer Action is a charity based in the UK whose mission is to change pancreatic cancer survival number and focus on improving early detection statistics. The charity’s approach is to raise awareness of pancreatic cancer to the public, the medical community and Government, provide education and training on pancreatic cancer to medical professionals and fund research specifically into improving early diagnosis of pancreatic cancer.
Founded by Ali Stunt, who is herself a rare survivor of the disease, Pancreatic Cancer Action has the support of many leading clinicians and researchers in the pancreatic cancer arena along with others whose lives have been touched by pancreatic cancer in some way.