The Chancellor stated that 300,000 people in the UK had signed a petition arguing that no VAT should be charged on sanitary products such as tampons. The UK already charges the lowest rate allowable under European law on such products, and are committed to getting the EU rules changed.
However, until that happens, the Government will use the £15 million a year raised from the Tampon Tax to fund women’s health. The first £5 million will be distributed between the Eve Appeal and a number of other women’s-health related organisations.
“We couldn’t think of a better source of funding for medical research which directly affects women, and we’ll ensure that every penny from this contribution is well spent on research into the early detection and prevention of women-specific cancers.” Athena Lamnisos, Chief Executive said: “On behalf of thousands of women and their families who have been affected by gynaecological cancers, and the scientific and clinical community who have been treating and researching these brutal diseases, we are so pleased to have been granted these funds which will make a significant difference to the medical research that we fund into early detection and prevention.
The good news is that this will be used to continue to fund our recently launched, ground-breaking research programme – FORECEE – which seeks to improve risk-prediction of women-specific cancers. The vision is to develop a screening process which will aim to prevent four female cancers (breast, womb, ovarian, and cervical) and save significantly more women’s lives. The ambition is, that by 2020, we will have developed a single risk model; one test for four cancers.
Sarah Smith, a cancer patient, welcomed the news: “As a woman currently being treated for ovarian cancer – a disease where the prognosis has hardly changed for over 30 years – I am delighted for The Eve Appeal and the research team. But above all I’m delighted that women in the future may benefit from the results of this research. I have two daughters and I’m anxious to see progress made in tackling this horrible disease.”
To find out more about our research programme which will benefit from the Government’s funding please visit our dedicated FORECEE web-page.