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The Story so Far - Our 5 year impact Report (2024)

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Our impact report showcases all the progress that's been made in just five years (2019-2024)

Read and download the full report here.

Letter from Emma Kinloch, Chair of the Board of Trustees and co-founder

It’s just over five years since I received an email from the Charities Commission advising me that ‘Salivary Gland Cancer UK’ was formally registered with them as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation.

After several months of discussions, drafting of documents and various pieces of admin, we were ‘over the line’ and had our very own charity number... We haven’t looked back since.

We are incredibly proud of how far we have come in this short time and wanted to take this opportunity to show our gratitude and have a moment of reflection on what we have achieved so far.

I’d like to start with a personal thank you to everyone who has attended an event, discussion, or workshop, manned a stall, created, written, or filmed content or provided input and support to our community. Without you, we would not be here.

Many of you have been involved and supported us from the very beginning and we are humbled by the effort you make for us. I would also like to thank those who have taken on more formal responsibilities on the Board, all of whom are volunteers.

So what have we achieved in five years?

I can’t count the number of times we have spoken at events, conferences and discussion groups about salivary gland cancers. All over the UK and internationally, we have reached out, met with collaborators, provided information and shared our knowledge and experience.

We’re keen to share how our collaboration between patients and clinicians can move things forward for better patient outcomes, but we’re equally keen to meet and learn from others with aligned goals and similar challenges.

Interactions facilitate deeper understanding, allow for the sharing of best practice and foster the co-creation of new projects.

Supporting and developing a UK-wide referral mechanism for patients with salivary gland cancers and helping establish The Christie Hospital, Manchester as a hub, has been key to moving things forward.

The biobank at The Christie hosts samples of salivary gland cancers from all over the UK and from all the anatomical sites in which they are found. In a world of genomics, where full tumour profiling is available on the NHS and research into understanding the basic biologies of these cancers is beginning to accelerate – this is an incredibly important resource. The utility of this is demonstrated with several publications already coming from the team in Manchester.

A key milestone for us in 2023 was being in the position to put out our first grant call. Shortly following this in early 2024 was the inaugural UK Salivary Gland Cancer Research Working Group meeting. Pathologists, basic scientists, oncologists, surgeons, early career researchers, nurses and of course, patients came together ‘To identify the gaps in salivary gland cancer research and develop strategic priorities for this area of research’.

On a personal note, I felt it was humbling and quite moving to have so many people who cared about these cancers in the same room. I even dared to feel hopeful for the future.

We are a small organisation, but we have come a long way since we received our first ‘big cheque’ from Kaye Herbert in 2019. We have a lot of work to do, solid foundations on which we will continue to build, and the drive to keep moving forward. We look forward to having you with us on the next leg of our journey.

We would like to dedicate our 5-year annual report to those we have lost along the way.  

With all the very best,

Emma Kinloch
Chair, Salivary Gland Cancer UK

 

Access the whole report here.