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  • Policy & Insight

COVID-19: “We’re having to rebuild and adapt because of coronavirus”

Michelle Mitchell, chief executive of Cancer Research UK
by Michelle Mitchell | Analysis

15 July 2020

10 comments 10 comments

Photo of a scientist working in a lab

The word ‘unprecedented’ has been used far too much over the past few months. But that’s exactly what this time has been. This pandemic is a chapter in our personal and working lives that will live with us for a very long time.

The same is true for our charity. Cancer Research UK has been through world wars, recession and other periods of major disruption. We remain – as always – focused on beating cancer and I want to thank everyone who has supported us through this time.

But despite all your amazing work, COVID-19 has placed a huge strain on our income and we’ve had to change our plans for the next few years to adapt to a changed world.

We’re having to scale down our work to reflect our new situation, but our ambition remains that same. And our new plan aims to ensure that Cancer Research UK is, and will stay, at the forefront of the global fight against cancer. It will help us to focus on the areas that will make the biggest impact for people affected by cancer and realise our ambition to improve cancer survival to 3 in 4 by 2034.

What impact has the pandemic had on Cancer Research UK?

COVID-19 threatens to severely impact our cancer research and make our ambition of improving cancer survival to 3 in 4 by 2034 more difficult. We’ve written extensively about the impact of the pandemic on people with cancer, the NHS and clinical trials.

Unfortunately, COVID-19 has also hit our fundraising hard – along with many others. We’re predicting a drop in income of £160 million this year, which is 30% of our income. Over the next three years we expect to lose £300 million.

Our response

We took immediate and decisive action in response, including moving all of our staff to 80% pay, furloughing 60% of staff and cutting £44m from our research. These actions saved us money, but critically they bought us time to develop the longer-term response which is essential to secure our future.

We’ve now finalised our plan for the next three years and agreed it with our trustees. Because of how COVID-19 has hit our income, we will have a lot less to spend on beating cancer, and we’ll have to cut our spend in many other areas – sadly, including by reducing the number of people in our team.

Cuts to research

Cuts to our life saving research are difficult, but sadly unavoidable. We plan to introduce a new research model, moving towards a lower level of funding of £250m a year within four to five years – a cut of £150m from what we had planned to spend.

It’s sadly inevitable that these cuts will deal a significant blow to our ambitions and will slow progress as we make fewer discoveries, fund fewer trials and produce fewer therapeutic and diagnostic innovations to help patients everywhere.

But this cut would very much be a worst-case scenario. We are doing absolutely everything in our power to find more financial support, and are working tirelessly to urge the Government to support our life-saving research.

We’ll also phase our reductions carefully, so that we can minimise the disruption on our life-saving research, and we’ll make sure that the model is flexible. This is so that if we are successful in securing additional funding, we can spend more.

Cuts to other areas too

Of course, we will also be reducing our expenditure right across the charity too, so we can keep to our high standard of ensuring at least 80p in every £1 raised is available to spend on beating cancer.

This means we’ll stop some programmes of work, reduce the amount or scope of other activities, and be the most efficient charity we can be – leading the charity sector in making best use of our resources. We’ll do less, but what we’ll do will be of the highest quality.

Sadly, this will mean reducing the number of people in our team. We will be reducing our staff by 500 roles, which is roughly a quarter (24%) of our workforce, excluding trading (our Cancer Research UK stores).

We’re the charity we are because of our brilliant people, and so it will be very difficult to see people leave.

We’re at the start of this process now, and we’ll know more about specific changes in the coming months. But we’re clear that while we’re scaling back, we’ll continue to make progress for people affected by cancer in three key areas – through our world-leading research, our sector-leading policy and influencing work, and through providing personalised cancer information.

Our future

There is a lot about the future beyond COVID-19 which is uncertain. But despite the challenges we face, we won’t give up. I believe completely in the power and potential of the charity – our brilliant staff, world-leading researchers, dedicated volunteers and supporters – to beat cancer.

We’ll still be the largest charitable funder of cancer research in the world, spending £1 billion on our mission to beat cancer over the next 3 years. We will still be the most influential UK charity. We’ll continue to fund the very best scientists in the UK and around the world.

But I also know we can’t do it alone. We need your support more than ever so that together, we will still beat cancer.

Michelle Mitchell is our chief executive

COVID-19 has slowed us down, but we will never stop. 

> Donate today to help continue life-saving research.

    Comments

  • Jacqueline Hemmings
    16 August 2020

    I would like to increase my monthly donation to £10 per month please

  • reply
    Katie Roberts
    17 August 2020

    Hi Jacqueline,

    It’s great to hear you’re interested in increasing your monthly donation – thank you so much. If you get in touch with our Supporter Services they’ll be able to help you with this. You can call them on 0300 123 1022 (Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm) or email [email protected].

    Best wishes,

    Katie, Cancer Research UK

  • Mike Farley
    15 August 2020

    Really saddened about the potential job losses, as a Key Volunteer with the Midlands Events Team I know how totally dedicated and passionate all the staff are they always go the extra mile and how important their roles are in helping to generate the vital funds CRUK need, I acknowledge the very difficult position CRUK faces and hope that careful consideration is given with regard to job cuts such that any job losses are minimised so as not to impact on the Charity’s resources to stage future Events to protect CRUK’s fundraising potential. Hopefully next year we can come back stronger and try to recoup some of the losses experienced in 2020.

  • Chris Sprague
    15 August 2020

    I’m just so sad that health (particularly Cancer) has to lose out on funding (and losing lives as a result) while the world is still spending billions on space research and armament sales – amongst other things. It’s unjust and so wrong.

  • Joanna Sheehy
    14 August 2020

    Absolutely disgusting, making people unemployed right now is shameful. You are not a Charity, you are a business and behave exactly the same. SHAME ON YOU!!

  • Roddie Burgess
    14 August 2020

    I was pleased to read your response to a earlier question about reducing costs and working across the board with other cancer charities. I note also the salary reductions. I have emailed you 3 times recently in response to your invitations to make additional donations asking whether your CEO has taken a 20% reduction in her £240K salary, without reply. I am still interested in getting an answer. £192k is still a not insignificant salary.

  • Dr Tony Selman
    14 August 2020

    Hi Katie

    CRUK has probably the most dedicated army of volunteers of any charity. As a long time volunteer and CRUK Ambassador I believe that a radical look at how many of the staff losses could be filled in the short term by volunteers thereby ensuring that professional staff can maximise the amount of time spent on scientific activity. For example mundane office duties that support the scientists.
    Regards
    Tony

  • reply
    Katie Roberts
    20 August 2020

    Hi Tony,

    Thanks for your comment, and your long-term support for Cancer Research UK. We’re incredibly proud to count on the support of our amazing volunteers, who are vital in our mission to beat cancer. I’ve passed your thoughts onto the relevant team.

    Best wishes,

    Katie, Cancer Research UK

  • Tracy Lang
    14 August 2020

    I am saddened to read this especially as a family member of someone with cancer (my dad has Mesothelioma cancer ) he has been very lucky throughout Covid and still got treatment but unfortunately there are other people who have not and it’s heart breaking .The Government should be doing more to help and not wasting money on stupid things but think about peoples lives never mind giving themselves a pay rise !!!!!

  • W Adam
    14 August 2020

    This is incredibly sad. The loss of research funding to cancer will be, in effect, more deaths due Covid-19. Could someone start a petition to the government, either on the government’s own petition site, or one of the others, to urge the government to support your research?

  • Dori-Anne Finlay
    17 July 2020

    As a member of NICRCF I think this is a terrible but understandable situation especially as much of the CR has been depended upon people like myself who have been with Research since 2010. Our voluntary work has been invaluable to CR especially here in N. I. Its very sad to hear about these cut backs.

  • Allegra Lombard
    16 July 2020

    What are you doing with other cancer charities to reduce the cost and increase the impact of cancer “policy and influence work” and “personalised cancer information” ? You have a moral responsibility to join forces so that your shrinking funds are spent on what people expect you do with their contributions: actual research

  • reply
    Katie Roberts
    21 July 2020

    Hi Allegra,

    We’re working more and more with other cancer charities, and collaboration will be an important part of our plan for the next few years – we’ll share more as our plans develop. Throughout COVID-19, we’ve been coordinating joint influencing through the One Cancer Voice coalition of with 25 cancer charities. We recently blogged about our 12 point plan for the restoration, recovery and transformation of cancer services after COVID-19. You can read our plan on our website.

    Best wishes,

    Katie, Cancer Research UK

    Comments

  • Jacqueline Hemmings
    16 August 2020

    I would like to increase my monthly donation to £10 per month please

  • reply
    Katie Roberts
    17 August 2020

    Hi Jacqueline,

    It’s great to hear you’re interested in increasing your monthly donation – thank you so much. If you get in touch with our Supporter Services they’ll be able to help you with this. You can call them on 0300 123 1022 (Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm) or email [email protected].

    Best wishes,

    Katie, Cancer Research UK

  • Mike Farley
    15 August 2020

    Really saddened about the potential job losses, as a Key Volunteer with the Midlands Events Team I know how totally dedicated and passionate all the staff are they always go the extra mile and how important their roles are in helping to generate the vital funds CRUK need, I acknowledge the very difficult position CRUK faces and hope that careful consideration is given with regard to job cuts such that any job losses are minimised so as not to impact on the Charity’s resources to stage future Events to protect CRUK’s fundraising potential. Hopefully next year we can come back stronger and try to recoup some of the losses experienced in 2020.

  • Chris Sprague
    15 August 2020

    I’m just so sad that health (particularly Cancer) has to lose out on funding (and losing lives as a result) while the world is still spending billions on space research and armament sales – amongst other things. It’s unjust and so wrong.

  • Joanna Sheehy
    14 August 2020

    Absolutely disgusting, making people unemployed right now is shameful. You are not a Charity, you are a business and behave exactly the same. SHAME ON YOU!!

  • Roddie Burgess
    14 August 2020

    I was pleased to read your response to a earlier question about reducing costs and working across the board with other cancer charities. I note also the salary reductions. I have emailed you 3 times recently in response to your invitations to make additional donations asking whether your CEO has taken a 20% reduction in her £240K salary, without reply. I am still interested in getting an answer. £192k is still a not insignificant salary.

  • Dr Tony Selman
    14 August 2020

    Hi Katie

    CRUK has probably the most dedicated army of volunteers of any charity. As a long time volunteer and CRUK Ambassador I believe that a radical look at how many of the staff losses could be filled in the short term by volunteers thereby ensuring that professional staff can maximise the amount of time spent on scientific activity. For example mundane office duties that support the scientists.
    Regards
    Tony

  • reply
    Katie Roberts
    20 August 2020

    Hi Tony,

    Thanks for your comment, and your long-term support for Cancer Research UK. We’re incredibly proud to count on the support of our amazing volunteers, who are vital in our mission to beat cancer. I’ve passed your thoughts onto the relevant team.

    Best wishes,

    Katie, Cancer Research UK

  • Tracy Lang
    14 August 2020

    I am saddened to read this especially as a family member of someone with cancer (my dad has Mesothelioma cancer ) he has been very lucky throughout Covid and still got treatment but unfortunately there are other people who have not and it’s heart breaking .The Government should be doing more to help and not wasting money on stupid things but think about peoples lives never mind giving themselves a pay rise !!!!!

  • W Adam
    14 August 2020

    This is incredibly sad. The loss of research funding to cancer will be, in effect, more deaths due Covid-19. Could someone start a petition to the government, either on the government’s own petition site, or one of the others, to urge the government to support your research?

  • Dori-Anne Finlay
    17 July 2020

    As a member of NICRCF I think this is a terrible but understandable situation especially as much of the CR has been depended upon people like myself who have been with Research since 2010. Our voluntary work has been invaluable to CR especially here in N. I. Its very sad to hear about these cut backs.

  • Allegra Lombard
    16 July 2020

    What are you doing with other cancer charities to reduce the cost and increase the impact of cancer “policy and influence work” and “personalised cancer information” ? You have a moral responsibility to join forces so that your shrinking funds are spent on what people expect you do with their contributions: actual research

  • reply
    Katie Roberts
    21 July 2020

    Hi Allegra,

    We’re working more and more with other cancer charities, and collaboration will be an important part of our plan for the next few years – we’ll share more as our plans develop. Throughout COVID-19, we’ve been coordinating joint influencing through the One Cancer Voice coalition of with 25 cancer charities. We recently blogged about our 12 point plan for the restoration, recovery and transformation of cancer services after COVID-19. You can read our plan on our website.

    Best wishes,

    Katie, Cancer Research UK