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How the money you raise helps

Your support is vital to our work

Cancer Research UK is the largest single funder of cancer research in the UK. Our work has saved millions of lives in the UK and across the world.  

We spend around £300 million on research every year funding over 4,500 scientists, doctors and nurses.

Do your own fundraising

With your help, we can continue to make a difference to the lives of many people affected by cancer.

Two scientists in a lab

Take a look at our fundraising ideas, or if you already know what fundraising you'd like to do, request a sponsorship pack to help you get started.

Every pound makes a difference

Here are some examples how the money you raise can help:

  • £15 could pay for a lab coat to protect a scientist from harmful chemicals, and their experiments from contamination.
  • £182 could buy 1,500 plastic petri dishes. They're an essential resource for thousands of scientists who are working hard to understand cancer.
  • £300 could enable one of our senior research nurses to treat and monitor a patient on a clinical trial for around two days.
  • £528 could buy 20,000 glass slides for studying cells and tumour samples in detail under a microscope.
  • £1,050 could fund around four microarrays - powerful pieces of gene technology that allow scientists to compare how active different genes are in cancer cells and healthy cells.  
  • £5,800 could cover three week's running costs for a large-scale clinical trial testing whether a drug called celecoxib - similar to ibuprofen - can help to prevent bladder cancer from coming back after treatment. 

Progress and achievements in cancer research

Our work has contributed to the improvement of survival rates and quality of life for cancer patients.

  • The overall cancer death rate has fallen by 10 per cent over the last decade.
  • Almost two out of three women with breast cancer now survive beyond 20 years.
  • Half of people diagnosed with cancer now survive for more than five years.
  • More than 95 per cent of men with testicular cancer are now successfully treated.
  • More than seven out of ten children with cancer are now successfully treated.

Find out more about the progress and achievements we've made over the past 100 years.