Michelle Mitchell, Chief Executive of Cancer Research UK (CRUK), shared a post on LinkedIn:
“Cancer Research UK exists to beat cancer. And beating cancer means beating it for everyone.
Our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) strategy outlines our commitment to get there, and I’m pleased to share some of the progress that we’ve made over the last six months.
Reduce cancer and health inequalities through our work and in partnership with others
Unacceptable disparities in cancer outcomes persist across the UK. In Wales, cancer death rates are nearly 48% higher for people living in the most deprived areas compared with the least, in Scotland it’s a staggering 80% higher.
The upcoming elections in both nations provide a critical opportunity for change, which is why we launched our Longer, Better Lives manifestos for Wales and Scotlandin September. At their heart is a shared ambition: to reduce cancer death rates by 15% by 2040, saving around 5,500 lives in Wales and 10,100 lives in Scotland. We’ll work with future governments to ensure that people affected by cancer receive the care and support they need.
We’re expecting the UK Government’s National Cancer Plan for England to be published shortly. We hope it will be a Turning Point for Cancer and a critical opportunity to improve cancer through long-term investment and reform. We’ll also be launching a manifesto for Northern Ireland ahead of its 2027 elections, where performance against cancer waiting targets is the worst in the UK.
Our Cervical Cancer Action for Elimination learning series, which we run together with the American Cancer Society, has engaged 56 leaders from 29 organisations across 17 countries. It’s inspiring to see this level of commitment and collaboration against a preventable cancer. Ending cervical cancer as a public health problem by 2030 is a key priority for the World Health Organisation and would go a long way to tackling cancer inequalities globally. To date, our researchers have played a vital role in improving cervical screening, developing and testing the effectiveness of the HPV vaccine, and improving treatment options.
Develop a more inclusive and diverse research community through the research we fund
Excellence in research is critical in helping us beat cancer for everyone. To make progress we’re committed to funding the best science; attracting and supporting the most talented researchers; and creating a research community that reflects the diversity of people affected by cancer and where everyone can do their best work.
In October we launched our refreshed approach to equality, diversity and inclusion in research and we’re gaining new ground already through new partnerships and enhanced career development support. I want to thank the patient representatives, researchers and partners who helped shape this and look forward to sharing our progress with you.
Engage with people in ways that are inclusive, relevant and accessible
It’s been great to see our cancer awareness activity, which brings potentially life-saving cancer information into the heart of communities, hit several key milestones. I had the pleasure of joining our dedicated nurses Tom and Cath at the Cancer Awareness Roadshowin Brixton in September to hear about the impact of their work. To date, these have helped 900k people since launching in 2006.
Meanwhile, our Cancer Awareness in the Workplace programme celebrated its 10th anniversary, engaging over 58,000 employees across multiple companies in the UK in that time, and our Talk Cancer workshops have trained 10,000 people since launching in 2021. We’ll continue working to reach even more people who experience barriers in accessing health information and services.
We’re committed to representing the experiences of everyone affected by cancer. I’m grateful for and inspired by all our volunteers, including those who continue to generously share their experiences to support our Turning Point for Cancer campaign and during September for Childhood Cancer Awareness Month.
Build an inclusive and diverse culture for all our people – staff and volunteers – so they can contribute to our success and feel like they belong
Our 2025 staff survey saw people’s sense of inclusion at Cancer Research UK remain at 81% (above sector benchmarks and up from 80% in 2023).
We met our target for at least 16% of our people to be from an ethnic minority background and continue to work to ensure our charity benefits from having a high performing, inclusive and diverse workforce
Ensure inclusion and diversity across our governance and leadership
For the third consecutive quarter, we met our target of 12% of our top leadership roles are held by colleagues from ethnic minority backgrounds.
We’ve also maintained our target for at least 50% of top leadership roles to be held by women. We hope to sustain this by broadening our senior-talent pipeline.
Looking ahead
We want to see the Tobacco and Vapes Bill pass into law to create the first ever smoke-free generation, helping to tackle the biggest cause of cancer and cancer inequalities in the UK. We’ll work with governments across all UK nations to ensure the Act is implemented effectively and continue to push for sustainable funding to help people stop smoking.
We’ll also be working to develop interdisciplinary research teams to better understand and address cancer inequalities.”
More posts featuring Michelle Mitchell.