The Irish Cancer Society's Work in 2013

We give advice, information and support. I'm extremely proud to say that I'm an Irish Cancer Society funded scholar. We educate people about what they can do to reduce their risk of cancer. Transparency is one of our core values. All the information about how the Irish Cancer Society's money is spent is on our website on page two of our annual report. 78c of every euro goes towards the services and the programmes and the cancer research that we provide here. 19c goes in investment in fundraising and in new ways of raising money. 3c goes on governance and administration. My name is Michelle and I'm an Irish Cancer Society fundraiser. Last year over 5,000 people volunteered for our Daffodil Day. The Irish Cancer Society, in the strategic plan that we launced in 2013 'Towards a Future Without Cancer' had four goals. Goal One was to reduce the risk of cancer. My name is Rosemary and I work in the Health Promotion team. You can reduce your risk of cancer by up to 50% by making healthy lifestyle choices. Goal Two is about improving the lives of people living with cancer and the way we did that is through the services that we provide. My name is Fiona and I'm a Daffodil Centre nurse and everyday we give information, support and advice to anyone concerned about cancer and people who have just been diagnosed with cancer. My name is Ursula and I'm a Care To Drive driver. Last year 870 volunteer drivers brought 687 chemotherapy patients to hospital for treatment. My name is Patricia and I'm a night nurse with the Irish Cancer Society. In 2013 night nurses provided 7772 nights to 1,869 patients. Goal Three is about collaborative cancer research. The enemy of cancer is cancer research and in 2013 we launched Breast Predict. Breast Predict is the Irish Cancer Society's first collaborative cancer research centre and the Irish Cancer Society will be investing €7.5 million in breast cancer research over the next 5 years. My name is John Kennedy, I'm a medical oncologist. The Irish Cancer Society is the largest funder of cancer research in the country. We are currently putting about €3 million a year into cancer research in Ireland. We would very much like to increase that over the course of the next 5-10 years and that is one of our goals. Goal Four, informing and influencing public policy because cancer is very much a public policy issue. We are aware and cognisant of the fact that Government have many demands on their time money but we think that cancer being such a prevalent disease and being so common with such devastating effects on so many people is one that really which we are obliged to advocate for My name is Helen, I'm a cancer survivor. I was diagnosed with bowel cancer in 2005. I think if I had been able to speak to someone who was going through the same as me it would have helped me so much. But eventually I got there and as a result of my own experience I now am a volunteer and I speak to people who are going through the same thing as me. While every year we see more and more people diagnosed with cancer, in fact, we see fewer and fewer people people relapsing and dying and we're seeing survival increasing all the time. We won't give up until cancer does.