How we work

We have over 200 people in our Involvement Network ensuring our work reflects community needs.

They've given their time and expertise by:

• Joining our taskforce to shape the Blood Cancer Action Plan.
• Helping design and develop our projects to improve access to clinical trials.
• Providing vital feedback on the health information we produce.
• Reviewing research applications to ensure we fund the most relevant and impactful science for people with blood cancer.
• Supporting people on our community forum and helping it grow.

We've built a thriving culture where staff are empowered to do their best work for the blood cancer community. Our quarterly surveys show 99% would recommend Blood Cancer UK as a good place to work, and we recently earned Best Companies' three-star accreditation and ranked in the top five UK charities to work for.

We're committed to maintaining this culture while enhancing cross-team collaboration essential to our mission. With ambitious strategic projects planned for 2025-2026, we're trialling new platforms and processes and supporting staff with emerging technologies to serve our community most effectively.

Our Blood Cancer Action Plan revealed unequal access to treatments and worse survival rates for certain groups of people. We're committed to understanding and removing these barriers.

This year we focused our work on people with blood cancer from ethnic minority communities who experience particularly poor outcomes, through:

• Our clinical trials project addressing underrepresentation of Black and Pakistani communities.
• Outreach programs to reach and support diverse communities.

We also strengthened our recruitment processes with inclusive practices like sharing interview questions in advance and always listing salaries.

Next year, we'll expand our EDI work to include a focus on those with lower socioeconomic status.

Our Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Steering Group is strengthened by members affected by blood cancer, whose contributions are invaluable.

Working in partnership with other organisations amplifies our impact. We're proud to collaborate with organisations that help our research funding go even further, including Cancer Research UK and the Daphne Jackson Trust to broaden our reach, and the BioIndustry Association to share our work across the biomedical sector.

This year we worked with:

• The Blood Cancer Alliance on treatment access issues, including examining NHS drug approvals.
• One Cancer Voice members, successfully campaigning for the government's national cancer plan.
• Cancer52, focusing on rare cancers. Through this work, we secured representation on an expert group influencing the national cancer plan.

We focus on reducing our environmental impact to reflect our community's values. Our hybrid working model keeps our carbon footprint low, and our new procurement policy requires suppliers to demonstrate sustainable practices.

We've improved fundraising event sustainability, including the Walk of Light, by:

• Offering local participation to minimise travel emissions.
• Reducing waste through reusable glass lanterns instead of paper ones and eliminating single-use items at cheer points.

Our long-term reserves are invested in a Sustainable Multi-Asset Fund using strict environmental, social, and governance criteria. This fund avoids companies with poor environmental practices and actively invests in those supporting the transition to a low-carbon economy.

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