Now everyone who knows me, will think the next word I use will be vagina. It will usually be followed by a shock statistic from our research that over 65% of under 35 years olds can’t correctly name or label gynaecological organs on a diagram. Or that only 3% of women are confident about the signs and symptoms of the gynaecological cancers. Or indeed the brutal stat that 55 women a day are diagnosed with a gynae cancer, and the even more brutal fact that of these, 21 will die.
So this month – and for me, possibly for this month only – V is for VAT. Because the ludicrous tax on essential period products (the very term ‘sanitary’ or ‘feminine hygiene’ make me rage so much I just can’t use them, and the VAT is not just on tampons) is being used to fund women’s causes.
The Eve Appeal does two things: we raise awareness that these too-little known, too-little talked about, and vastly under-funded cancers even exist and what their signs and symptoms are; and we support pioneering, world-class research in the prevention, risk prediction and early diagnosis of these cancers. We want to stop these cancers before they start.
We’re not funding the well-known cancers, the ones that are easy to talk about. We’re championing the cancers only women get. The cancers that affect far too many mothers, sisters, daughters and friends each year. And we’re doing this not just for women today, but for women of the future. Our research isn’t in trying to find clever cures and wonder drugs. Our new programme 4C, aims to develop a test to predict risk in four women’s cancers. It’s clever stuff, at the ‘riskier’ end of things where funding isn’t easy to come by and we rely on the commitment of many individual donors and supporters who have been affected by these cancers and are inspired by our work.
If you’ve been affected by one of the gynae cancers – and these cancers don’t just affect women – for every Eve there is an Adam who watches on as the cancer journey progresses – you know that early detection and prevention is the answer if the question you’re trying to solve is: How do we save most lives?
So back to the ‘V’ word. The Eve Appeal are the first beneficiary of the ‘tampon tax’ charitable fund established this week. The funding we will receive – £350,000 of the £15million available – will be restricted to 4C (please watch this 2 minute film about the programme and what it hopes to achieve). I am unreservedly delighted that this research programme has had a big fat gap in its funding plugged. Funding this research programme has kept we awake at night for most of this year – the excitement at its potential and what it can achieve, and the fact that we need to raise £800,000 to complete the funding for it.
It’s also not the only programme we want to fund: womb cancer is a hugely under resourced cancer, we need to progress some specific work in this area in the coming year; vulval and vaginal cancers are much rarer cancers where specialist research is badly needed; and we literally have pocket-money budgets for awareness campaigns that are essential for saving lives.
The Eve Appeal has always worked in a very specific way, putting funding in at an early stage into programmes that more conventional funders are less inclined to support. When those programmes progress and show promising results, then other funders come into play. The largest clinical trial on any disease issue – UKCTOCS which aims to develop ovarian cancer screening – was started with seed funding provided by The Eve Appeal.
Seeing the use of this unfair and ludicrous tax as a negative move for women’s causes is missing a substantial point. The key issue for me is this: there are a range of women’s health issues and causes that are under-funded and ignored by conventional funding streams. There are oh so many: gynae cancers, menopause, endometriosis to name but a few.
Once I’d got over the shock and joy that our research programme was being recognised and given a financial boost, I also gave a louder cheer for the Chancellor’s commitment to lobby for change on this unfair women-only tax – let’s make sure that we hold him to this commitment to get rid of it. And then let’s make sure that the Women’s Fund continues – because there are many causes out there that need it.
I want to thank three people now – two who I’m sure are with me for the long haul ahead in making a difference on gynae cancers, and one who I hope will be: Matt, whose 37 year old wife Jo died earlier this year from ovarian cancer and who has been furiously fundraising with calendar-selling, boxing-match-organising and donation-collecting ever since; Louise, diagnosed with primary peritoneal cancer at 34, now third time relapsed and with no further treatment lines available to her; and George who gave us a significant one-off donation that will help fund a hugely under-resourced area of research and enable our teeny tiny team to get on with raising funds and awareness for the other much-needed programmes.
Our ambition is guaranteed. Our funding isn’t.