A message from our Chief Executive
Contents

Zeroing in on the men who need us most

Impact Report 2022/23

A note from our CEO, Laura Kerby

February 2022 was a superb time to begin my role as Chief Executive of Prostate Cancer UK and to see how we’d stepped up to the challenges of the last two years. Through the changes of the pandemic, we listened and responded to men’s changing needs by working collaboratively with our partners, volunteers and supporters. We found new ways to fundraise, to reach men at increased risk of prostate cancer and to provide vital services and support.

When the restrictions made working in labs and clinical trials almost impossible, we supported the research community to save our 48 existing projects that were at risk. When NHS data showed that 14,000 men might be diagnosed too late to be cured, we launched a national campaign with NHS England and half a million people used our 30-second risk checker. When the pandemic delayed diagnoses and treatments, we kept our frontline services open, ensuring men and their families could access support and information of the highest quality. More on this below.

Thanks to generous supporters like you and the return of events and face-to-face activities, our annual fundraising income was £35.4m. This represents a 27 per cent increase on the previous year (£27.9m) and returns us to our pre-pandemic peak. Tremendous results given the challenges of 2021/22 and only made possible thanks to the dedication of our supporters and incredible staff.

As we re-emerge from the pandemic, our mission remains the same: save more lives and support more men affected by prostate cancer. Looking forward we are in good financial health, and we can be confident as we continue our work to create a better future for men and their families.

Laura Kerby
Chief Executive

1.3 million people check their risk

As a result of the pandemic, 14,000 men in the UK are living with undiagnosed prostate cancer. From January to April 2022, we joined forces with NHS England and launched a national risk awareness campaign to find these men and promote our 30-second risk checker.

With no signs or symptoms in the early stages and no screening programme, it’s a huge challenge to find the men who have prostate cancer and get them diagnosed early, when it can still be cured. Thanks to supporters sharing our risk checker, the campaign saw record-breaking results, both in terms of our reach and the impact it had on men’s lives.

  • 551,396 people used our 30-second risk checker, over 80% of whom are at higher risk of prostate cancer because of their age, ethnicity, or family history.
  • Urgent referrals for urological cancers reached an all-time high, with almost 25,000 people checked in March alone. Referrals were up almost a quarter (23%) on the previous month and 28% above pre-pandemic levels.
  • On the day of launch, our Specialist Nurses took 250 calls, twice as many calls as normal, and our website dealt with its biggest ever spike in people seeking information on prostate cancer.
Thank you so much to everyone sharing the risk-checker. Had I not seen that I would have just carried on completely oblivious. It saved my life.
Ted Sayers, who was diagnosed and treated after doing the risk checker

Co-creating health information with Black men, community leaders and health experts

With labs working at reduced capacity and clinical trials on hold, the effects of COVID-19 were still threatening existing and future research projects in 2021/22. We urgently needed to help our researchers build back momentum and protect years of progress.

Thanks to the continued support of people like you, we were able to work closely with researchers throughout the pandemic, supporting boundary-pushing research into better prostate cancer treatments.

  • We saved all our 48 active research projects that were at risk of stalling or stopping due to the pandemic. This included the £400k+ CHRONOS project, which was trialling high-intensity ultrasound and cryotherapy (freezing cancer cells) to treat early-stage prostate cancer but was forced to shut down for several months.
  • We funded three exciting new projects that could transform prostate cancer treatment and our understanding of the disease biology. One of these is led by Dr Victoria Dunne, whose team at Queen's University in Belfast is investigating a new method of delivering radiotherapy to extend the lives of men with advanced prostate cancer.
  • We committed £13.2 million into research in 2022/23. This included large-scale grants like the Transformational Impact Awards, which tackle the biggest challenges in prostate cancer in order to maximise the speed and scale of research progress.

This is an incredible collective achievement that we should all be proud of! But we must keep going. Share our 30-second risk checker with the men in your life so we can find the 14,000 men and get them the treatment they need.

SHARE THE RISK CHECKER

Prostate cancer diagnosis now safer for tens of thousands of men

Whether it’s dealing with a diagnosis, choosing treatments, or managing side effects, prostate cancer can have a huge impact on the lives of men and those close to them. Our Specialist Nurses are there to offer support and information when men need it the most.

Throughout this uncertain period, we kept our lines and services fully open, ready to support the backlog of men who’d missed their diagnosis or saw their treatments delayed. As the number of people using our services returned to normal, we listened and tested new approaches to make sure our services adapted to men’s changing lives – and saw some remarkable results.

Having a biopsy is never the most pleasant experience, so research like this that could improve diagnosis and stop men like me having to undergo multiple or unnecessary procedures is hugely welcome.
John Aves, who had two biopsies before being diagnosed

Breakthrough research in how we treat men is only possible thanks to your continued support. Donate today and help fund vital research to get men the treatments they need to live long and live well.

SUPPORT OUR RESEARCH

Men’s lives extended by more precise treatments

Dr Kelly Coffey

This year we celebrated a landmark moment. The first gene-targeting treatment for prostate cancer became available for eligible men across the UK, thanks to your support. Olaparib targets cancers with a particular genetic mutation and can help men live several months longer. Hundreds of men each year could now benefit from this. Olaparib could also open the door for more targeted treatments for prostate cancer – ideally at earlier stages of the disease, when they could be even more effective.

And thousands of men with advanced prostate cancer should now be able to avoid the side effects of docetaxel such as fatigue, nausea, hair loss and loss of appetite. We’ve invested more than £2.5m into analysing the results of the STAMPEDE trial. Now, with analysis of other trials, this has revealed which men’s lives can be significantly extended by docetaxel chemotherapy and which would do better on other treatments.

We’re delighted to see research you’ve funded giving men more time and paving the way for more personalised, more effective treatments to reduce side effects and extend lives further.
Dr Matthew Hobbs Director of Research at Prostate Cancer UK

Dads, brothers, partners, mates, daughters – supported on their terms over 13,700 times

Nurse John Robertson

We know you care deeply about supporting men and their loved ones after a prostate cancer diagnosis and through whatever comes next. Your donations have enabled our Specialist Nurses to do this more than 13,700 times this year, providing expert support and information and giving people the time they need to talk and ask questions. They’ve kept this up through extremely busy times during awareness campaigns and when prostate cancer was in the headlines, supporting more Black men and also men in Scotland affected by the shocking news that they have a much lower chance of being diagnosed early enough for a cure.

More people have been using our WhatsApp service to contact the nurses – a helpful alternative for men who can’t call or email the nurses or aren’t comfortable doing so. And a very generous donor and wonderful new volunteers have enabled our peer-to-peer support service to expand by 28%, giving more people the chance to talk things through with someone who’s been in the same boat.

  • 98% of people who contacted our Specialist Nurses would recommend the service
  • 87% of men who talked about their prostate cancer experience with our peer-to-peer support volunteers understood their situation better and felt better able to make decisions afterwards
  • People seeking online information about prostate cancer viewed our web pages over 2.7m times
I cannot fault the service. I spoke to the same nurse twice who was outstanding both times. Her patience and empathy were exactly what I needed at the time. So informative and caring.
Caller to our Specialist Nurses

Thank you for all you do!

A huge heartfelt thank you to all supporters, fundraisers, partners, volunteers and everyone in this incredible team who has made it possible to find more of the 14,000 men and save lives.

From Jools Holland who Raised the Roof of the Royal Albert Hall – to the 1,800 people who wrote to MPs to tell them Boys need Bins – to the biggest club in football, Prostate FC – and every donor, runner, walker, golfer and anyone who shared the risk checker – thank you!

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