Please help us Change the Numbers…
UK Pancreatic Cancer charities have united together to launch Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Week which runs from the 16th to the 22nd November 2009. During that week the individual charities will be organising events to raise awareness among the UK public about this disease.
Pancreatic cancer is a silent killer. It is difficult to diagnose and most victims, when diagnosed, find that they have untreatable terminal cancer. There is no early detection test and treatment is limited. Because symptoms generally do not appear until the disease is well advanced, the average survival time after diagnosis is merely six months.
This awareness week is designed to start making the UK public more aware using these key messages:
- Pancreatic cancer is the 5th commonest cause of cancer death in the UK
- There has been no improvement in the overall survival rate in the past 40 years. Only 3% of those diagnosed are still alive five years after diagnosis.
- Pancreatic cancer is under resourced in research and treatment compared to other common cancers
The Silent Cancer
In conjunction with the awareness week, ‘The Silent Cancer’, a feature documentary investigating pancreatic cancer in the UK will be released:
Narration by Stuart Laws, Music by Claire Batchelor, Directed by Alastair Clayton, Written and Produced by Stuart Laws