Thank you from Ali Stunt
As chief executive of Pancreatic Cancer Action, I would like to say a heartfelt thanks for supporting us during 2015. It has been a phenomenal year in which we have substantially raised the profile of pancreatic cancer – something we couldn’t have done without your help.
The sheer kindness and generosity of all our supporters never ceases to amaze me. Whether you choose to spend a day raising awareness in your local supermarket, travel abroad to climb a volcano or take on an endurance challenge like Tough Mudder, we are amazed and extremely grateful for everything you do to help drive early diagnosis of pancreatic cancer.
2015 has seen more discussion of pancreatic cancer in the media and parliament.
This has included our campaign to reinstate Abraxane on the Cancer Drugs Fund and with the help of some inspiring patients, the issue was discussed on Sky News, Channel 4 and BBC News. You can support our campaign by signing and share our government petition.
Research spending increased marginally by £5.2 million. Although this only represents 1.4% of cancer research spending and we will be campaigning for significantly more funding from the government in 2016.
We saw the release of new NICE referral guidelines for pancreatic cancer, with specific guidelines for the diagnosis of pancreatic cancer as a single disease included for the first time, and the addition of new onset diabetes as a key symptom. This is something that we asked for in our PCA election manifesto.
We were delighted to gain more high profile support with Nick Hewer and Dr Hilary Jones joining our team of patrons.
The long awaited results of our symptoms study carried out by a team of researchers at University of Cambridge to identify the key symptoms of pancreatic cancer will be available soon. This year, we also launched our Early Diagnosis Challenge Awards – funding over 200,000 in research projects to identify new ways of improving early diagnosis of pancreatic cancer
These are just a few of many things that have happened this year as a result of your support, and I would like to thank you again. .
I wish you all the best for Christmas and the New Year, and look forward to seeing what we can achieve in 2016.