Where your money goes

Dear Carl Leake,

Thank you for your comment. We closed the defined benefit pension scheme to future accrual on 31 March 2015, which means that staff who were members of that scheme have transferred over to the defined contribution scheme, hence the payments to defined contribution schemes has gone up from £690k to £933k.

As the pension plan is defined contribution, the individual does not accrue an entitlement to a particular pension at retirement. Instead, the employee accrues a pension pot, which is based on contributions paid and investment returns. So, the average pension pot accrued for that group over the year would be the average contribution paid over the year, plus investment returns which will vary from employee to employee depending on their personal investment choices.

Cancer Research UK’s defined contribution plan is open to all employees.

Best wishes,
Ali Glossop, Cancer Research UK

Dear cancer research team,
Thank you for your news letter explaining how our donations are helping your quest to fight cancer. I m pleased to be able help.

Why is the CEO on a salary of roughly £240,000? A cure for cancer will never be found it has too much money involved. Who doesn’t profit from the sick, Harpal Kumar? Personally I think he should be ashamed of himself living off the ill people and from the generosity of
people who donate their hard earned cash.

There is obviously a lot of research going on to find treatments and hopefully one day cures for cancer. Even though it is advertised on the television I would say that most of the general public are unaware of the intensity of the research. But I think that it is important to keep on making the public aware of lifestyle changes that can help to prevent the disease. Thank you to all the researchers involved in cancer its good to know that our donations are helping.

Very informative + interesting thank you

I’m proud to support your charity. Thank you for everything you do. It’s life changing.

My wife and I know how hard you work but being pensioners aged eighty 3 and eighty
4 we only help by supporting with Charites..Please keep up the good work.

A huge thank you for the amazing work you do it kept my husband going for 14 years with various forms of cancer

I think what you, we, and I all do is pretty amazing………….we must all keep up the good work and soldier on in the battle against cancer.

Can you explain why the average accrued pension benefits for those earning over £60,001 rose by over 30% compared to those of 2014, (from a mean of £7500 in 2014 to £9925 in 2015), and what is the anticipated average accrued pension benefits for these staff members for 2016? For information the 2015 accounts presented this on page 46 as follows: “In respect of employees in the £60,001 and above bandings, 94 accrued benefits under defined benefit pension schemes (2014: 92) and payments to defined contributions schemes totalled £933,000 (2014: £690,000).” Are these benefits paid to staff below this salary level? If not why not?

Dear Mrs Pisani,

Thank you for your comment. We receive no Government funding for our life-saving research so every step we make towards beating cancer relies on every pound donated. For every £1 donated, 80p is available to beat cancer. Every single pound really does count as nine out of ten donations we receive are for £10 or less.

And yes, you are right – TV advertising is part of the 20% of every £1 that we spend on fundraising.

Ali Glossop, Cancer Research UK

I am aware of all the research your company does and hope it keeps finding new ways to treat various cancers, I myself have been through cancer twice and have been grateful for the treatment I received. Wish you all the best for future research.

I think there should be research into alternative/natural remedies, assuming that unprofitable solutions that can’t be patented are still considered?

Thank you for this important information. Whilst doing one of the sweepstakes at my local gym.i was asked, who pays for the expensive TV ads? Is it from the 20%? Or donated by TV. Thank you.

Thank you for the blog post .. it has made me smile that you have took the time to explain to us where all this money goes and what it helps you to do now and in the future.. I will continue to donate when I can.. this detailed post has given me more insight into how significant our help is.. although it is a shame that the government doesn’t fund even a small amount of this yet we are all affected by cancer in some way .. thanks again #beatcancersooner

Thanks for the information- keep up the good work

Thank you for all that you are doing. It’s nice to know where my donations are being spent. Keep fighting this horrible disease.

Thank you for the infortmation. it is very informative indeed. people do appreciate it when they know where their donation is going and how it is helping. it encourages them to donate more. So thank you very much for this information. I would just like to mention one thing about Turmeric. it is indeed a wonder herb for many many illnesses and diseases. How ever it is impotant for people to know that they must always consult their treatment provider before taking turmeric, as there are Cautions. The most important one being, if they are on Anticoagulants such as Warfarine or Xeralto(Riverexoban), as there is tendency to bleed with Turmeric interfering with anti coagulation drugs. Also for Diabetics a Turmeric does interfere with blood sugar. having had 2 members of my family who suffered from Cancer, happy to say that both survived the cancer and that is most definitely because of Cancer Research UK doing such a wonderful job with the money raised fron Donations. So well done Cancer Research, keep up the good work, and thank you.

I have always believed that most of my donation went into research. Great.

I just hope that after all the supporters have donated, if one day you find a cure, it’s not snatched by the drug companies, then over-priced so high that noone can afford it.
After all…. the drug company revenue for current drugs will need to be replaced, it’s a lucrative industry, which is part of the reason a cure is taking so long.

Hi Ugo.E,

Thank you for your comment. Chemotherapy is a tried and tested treatment, and there’s solid evidence that it helps to cure and extend the lives of many people. Interestingly, many chemotherapy drugs were discovered from chemicals purified from plants – such as paclitaxel (from needles from pacific yew trees) and vismodegib (from corn lily).
Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a treatment for non-melanoma skin cancer and is being tested as an experimental treatment for other types of cancer. But it shouldn’t be confused with sonodynamic therapy (SDT) which is unlicensed and isn’t supported by any scientific evidence. More information can be found here.

You also mentioned turmeric and shiitake mushrooms – researchers have found chemicals extracted from them have had some effect on cancer cells growing in the lab, (more information can be found here and here but we’re a long way from knowing if they’d be safe or effective in people with cancer. You might be interested to know that we’re funding research to find out whether curcumin, the active ingredient in turmeric, helps reduce the risk of developing bowel cancer, or stop the disease coming back after treatment.

Best wishes,

Fiona Conway-Jones, Cancer Research UK

Sorry could complete registration as site did not like my name or address which I can’t change not doing event because of it

Without people like you and your researchers and scientists, we would be in a dreadful state with cancer. A huge thank you from me for the work that you do and i know will continue to to do. If i can donate more, I will

You are doing so well and i feel happy to help you although not as much as i would like but as i keep telling other’s if everyone gave a little it would make so much difference.

Really informative and it’s great to know where my money goes. So pleased that so many intiatives are in place to tackle cancer.

Keep up all your great work.

Thank you for telling me how you spend the money as I have been diagnosed with breast cancer myself just resently

Thank you for being open and honest about where the donations go.keep up the great work you do.

Thank you for all your informationI am extremely pleased with your openness on how the contributions are spent.I agree whole-heartedly with your spending policies and wish you all the best in your work with Cancer Research.

You are doing a wonderful job thank you

Very interesting to read where the donations go although never had any doubt the biggest percentage was going into research. Your events such as Race for Life etc. are always very uplifting and bring home the reality of this disease (my daughter went through breast cancer 4 years ago). Keep up the good work.

Thanks for a very informative email.

From what you have stated I am satisfied that my contribution is being used to best advantage and appreciate the work so many are undertaking. I have no doubt that the work undertaken saved my life and I , and my family will be thankful for the remainder of my life. You are doing a great job, THANK YOU

IT is encouraging to hear of the work which continues to be carried out and what is required for the future. This information serves to push me to donate to Cancer Research as much as I can.

How much is spent/wasted by your legal department defending the indefensible?

But why isn’t the test going toward chemo alternatives like SPDT (Sono-Photo Dynamic Therapy) that continue to show promise? Or spices like Turmeric? or Medicinal Mushrooms?

I am aware of major welcome advances in diagnosis and treatment of many cancers but how much emphasis goes into prostate cancer where men still await even a decent test to suggest treatment is required

I found it very interesting to know where our donations go. A lot of other charities don’t tell you how much actually goes to the charity.