After Storm Covid, where will the rainbow land......
‘See you on the other side’ has become my standard, rather flippant, email sign off – but will there be a flip of the current status quo when this crisis is over (and it will be over) or will we slide into a new somewhat recognisable normal?
The Covid pandemic has brought a charity like Eve huge challenges. Our income took an overnight hit with every event, challenge activity, gathering of friends, family and colleagues to fundraise cancelled. These activities are the heart of how we raise income to fund research and awareness to get us closer to achieving our mission- a future where fewer woman are diagnosed with and many more women survive gynaecological cancers.
As the crisis hit, not only did our income plummet but the demand on our specialist nurse service, Ask Eve, rocketed. This isn’t surprising at a time of unprecedented uncertainty around our health and a fierce wish to not get ill. With routine cancer screening cancelled or delayed, with changes to treatment plans, with the worries about the NHS becoming overwhelmed and confusion over when and if it’s appropriate to ‘bother your doctor’, there is quite a list of things to keep people anxious and concerned when it comes to their health. And quite a body-blow of circumstances for us to face as a charity.
But there are some small silver linings to the pandemic for Eve. The demand for our nurse services has given us a clear sense of purpose during a period when many are feeling helpless in the face of want to do something, indeed anything, to help. We’re in the midst of a pandemic, but as catalysts for change in women’s health, we are keen to think, talk and plan where we go from here. Covid has reinforced the urgency of our mission around investing and focusing on prevention – finding new possibilities for predicting risk, diagnosing earlier and ultimately, stopping cancer before it has the chance to start.
We’re going to do this in collaboration with the clinicians, researchers, advocates, volunteers, and of course, the people and their loved ones who are affected by these too little known and underfunded diseases. And this is only made possible thanks to the continued dedication and generosity of our fantastic donors, who have continued to support us during these challenging times. We all have a shared sense of purpose – that women of today and the future should face less taboos around gynae health, be more aware and confident of spotting worrying symptoms and that medical research continues to progress, de-code cancer development and light up avenues of how we can intervene to stop families having to deal with these devastating diagnoses.
As a medical research charity, we play an important role in the research pipeline and provide a vital role in making the UK a world leader in science and research. We do this by seed funding in the riskier more innovative research programmes where conventional funding is harder to come by. In the last decade, the little old Eve Appeal has pump-primed world-class screening research in ovarian cancer that has then brought in wide scale support from other funders – the Departments of Health across England and Wales, the Medical Research Council and Cancer Research UK. For every ￡1 brought in from our donors, ￡13 pounds has been brought in later on down the line.
Our shared purpose is powerful. Government spokespeople and the media keep using the same phrase about life after the pandemic, it will be a ‘new normal’. We hope that ‘normal’ sees investment in preventative health, valuing every level of our NHS and health service delivery, continued embracing of digital technology (telephone and video GP and consultant appointments have been a revelation of ease and good communication for many and really must become the ‘new normal’) and that we invest more than a derisory 6% in cancer prevention research.
We need to work together to get the future of health right. Design a system for funding research that isn’t just about treatment, silver bullet cures and intervening when disease hits but a system that keeps people well and their health invested in and supported.
We know that this means energising, inspiring, angering and galvenising people. That’s why took the bold decision to go ahead with our Get Lippy Campaign in May. We met with a few surprised faces when we said, yes, we are still planning on a partnership campaign, with retailers and reliant on consumers, that’s positive, bold and outspoken.
We wanted to stand together with all those affected, with the NHS and with our partners to show that not only is cancer not in lockdown but also that health prevention must be placed front and centre of everyone’s minds.
The pandemic presents us with opportunities. It’s taught us a lesson that health is quite literally wealth and that science and research are central to the UK’s exit strategy from the current crisis. We need to get this right. So who’s with us? If you love someone, Get Lippy!
To find out more about how you can Get Lippy with Eve this May, visit getlippy.org.uk.A