The Christie Impact Report 2023-24

A final wish A breast cancer study established in memory of former Girls Aloud singer Sarah Harding and spearheaded by her bandmates has benefitted from charity funding this year and is already making an impact. Sarah was treated at The Christie and sadly died aged 39 in 2021, but her wish was that research should be carried out to spot the signs of breast cancer earlier. Every day more than 150 women are diagnosed with breast cancer in the UK – that’s almost 55,000 a year, and nearly a fifth of all cases are women who are under 50.

Currently, there is no routine screening programme for early breast cancer in younger women who don’t have a family history of the disease, despite it being the most common cause of death in women aged 30-55 years. The BCAN-RAY (Breast Cancer Risk Assessment in Young Women) study funded by ourselves and Cancer Research UK, will identify which young women between the ages of 30 and 39 are most likely to develop breast cancer so they can have early screening and opportunities for prevention, to reduce the chances of them developing and potentially dying from the disease. Sarah’s consultant Dr Sacha Howell says: “Sarah was a real character and a force of nature. She faced her cancer diagnosis with courage and dignity. Even when she was really unwell she talked to me about wanting to do something that would help young women like her in the future. It’s thanks to her vision and that of the other girls in the band, that we have this study that will fulfil Sarah’s dying wish to find new ways to spot the signs of the disease earlier and stop it cutting lives like hers short.”

8