In 2020, I lost my mother to pancreatic cancer, one of the deadliest cancers known. At aged 17, I lost the woman who brought me into this world, and who cared, loved, and nurtured me as I grew. My mum was diagnosed with this cancer at its advanced stages, and despite gruelling treatment, it wasn’t the outcome we all prayed for. Pancreatic cancer is the 5th most common cause of cancer deaths in both males and females, with 1 in 4 people with pancreatic cancer surviving for one year or more, and only 5% surviving for ten years or more. Statistics show that there are at least 37% of preventable cases for pancreatic cancer, yet between 2016-2018 there were roughly 29 new cases per day. Not only this, at least 80% of those diagnosed are told that it’s in the advanced stage, where it has roughly a 5% survival rate. Within the last 40 years there has yet to be a major breakthrough in research and treatment options for those living with pancreatic cancer, and the UK’s leading charity Pancreatic Cancer UK receives only 3% of the entire cancer research budget, 3 times less than research spent on breast cancer! There has been a 10% increase in diagnosis’s of pancreatic cancer over the last decade itself, playing its part at 6% of all cancer deaths. 

Pancreatic Cancer UK are calling for a £25 million extra funding to enable them to fund life saving research into this horrific disease. The research will fund earlier diagnosis’s (one of the biggest issues is a late diagnosis as it means that the most effective treatment option, surgery, cannot be used), ensuring that those diagnosed receive much better treatment and care, whilst slashing the risk of becoming terminally ill and premature death. The importance of Pancreatic Cancer UK receiving this extra funding is crucial to prevent individuals and their families becoming yet another statistic of this deadly disease, and from causing another family pure heartbreak of going through this. 

We will not be beaten by pancreatic cancer, 

thank you!