Reflections on our past, present and future

As we publish our Annual Report and Accounts for 2021/22, we’re reflecting back on our achievements over the past year and on the steps we took to make that progress possible. This is set amid a much bigger year of reflection, as in 2022 we’ve been looking back at our history – of 20 years as Cancer Research UK and a century before that at the forefront of cancer research.

Taking heart from our history

Progress in research can often seem slow. Genuinely revolutionary breakthroughs are rare – much more often progress comes in the form of thousands of small developments that piece-by-piece improve the overall picture for people affected by cancer. The ability to detect a particular cancer at an earlier stage, a combination of drugs that improves survival or minimises side-effects for a certain group, or a policy change that reduces the numbers of people developing cancer in the first place.

Over time, these add up to immense progress, but it can be hard to see this on a day-to-day basis. It’s often only by stepping back that you can see what has actually been achieved.

That’s why it’s so important to take stock of your achievements – whether that’s over the past year or the past 120 years. As a charity, relying on the generosity of our supporters to be able to make progress, we wanted to use this moment to celebrate them for what their support has helped us to achieve – and galvanise our whole community and the public around what is possible in the future.

This year has also been one in which we set ourselves a bold new strategic direction, with the launch of our new strategy. This sets out how we’ll harness the power of research to bring about a world where everyone can lead longer, better lives, free from the fear of cancer.

Our history tells us that we must continually adapt to stay at the forefront of the fight against cancer. The picture for research is always changing, and what is possible is constantly being reshaped. Looking to our past not only affirms what we can do with dedication, support and funding – it also emboldens us to chart a course for how we will make ever greater progress against cancer in the years ahead.

Coming out the other side of the pandemic

We began the last financial year as the UK was just emerging from a third national lockdown. While the picture seemed to ease over the summer, COVID-19 still disrupted our research, work and the lives of people affected by cancer significantly for much of 2021/22, especially as the omicron wave hit later on in the year.

However, during the first year of the pandemic, we had developed a plan for how we would weather the crisis, put ourselves on a sustainable footing and return to growth as quickly as possible. This meant setting a sustainable research baseline and becoming a more efficient and effective organisation, capable of making the biggest possible impact from the resources at our disposal.

Crucially, we also knew that in every crisis there is opportunity, and that we had to be agile and adapt to the changes taking place in the world. This meant rethinking our ways of working, developing our digital capabilities and capitalising on new online fundraising opportunities that arose during the pandemic.

This year we started to reap the rewards of those decisions. For example, thanks to some of these innovative new fundraising methods – as well as the incredible commitment and generosity of our supporters and partners – we outperformed our fundraising budget, allowing to invest more in research over the coming years that we had originally planned.

Although COVID-19 hasn’t gone away, thanks to the decisions we took last year, we have emerged from the pandemic on strong financial footing and able to look to the future with optimism. We are now able to commit ￡1.5bn to research over five years, and we will continually look to grow that amount, and with it our impact on cancer.

Setting a bold new direction

Much has changed since our last strategy was published in 2014. Our understanding of cancer has moved on leaps and bounds. Technology is changing everything from the way data is used in research to the way our supporters connect with us. The possibilities of global, multidisciplinary collaboration are only just starting to be fully realised. And our obligations to become truly environmentally sustainable only become clearer.

Coming out of the pandemic, the time was right to refresh our strategy to capitalise on this situation.

Central to this process was a programme of consultation with our supporters, staff, researchers and partners and – most importantly – people affected by cancer. As a charity that exists to beat cancer, it’s vital that what we do reflects the wishes of the people who we exist to serve. As one member of our patient involvement panel recently summed it up to me, ‘nothing about us without us’. Their input has been vital in shaping our vision – in particular our increased focus on quality of life and cancer inequalities.

The result of this process is our new strategy, ‘Making Discoveries, Driving Progress, Bringing Hope’, which builds on what we have been doing over our entire history – making discoveries about how cancer develops, evolves and interacts with our bodies, and then using these discoveries to improve the way we prevent, detect and treat it. But it also sees us go further – for example, by building discovery into everything we do, looking to deliver a better and more tailored experience for our supporters, and committing to achieving net zero emissions by 2050.

We have set ourselves a bold vision for the future. But thanks to taking decisive action during the pandemic, we are in a position to take on the challenges. And our history tells us that by drawing on the generosity and support everyone who shares our mission, we can make that bold vision a reality.