Our plans for 2023-2024

As well as increasing the amount we spend, we will continue to change the way we’re spending it. In particular, the Matthew Wilson Multiple Myeloma Fund will lead to an increase in the amount of myeloma research we fund. We will also use our influence to champion equity in research, widening participation in research to ensure the diversity of the blood cancer community is reflected.

We will use our campaigning voice and work in partnership to make sure more clinical trials are opening in the UK for people with blood cancer, and to help reduce the extent to which where people’s location and ethnicity affect their chances of getting onto a trial.

During the year, we will publish data from the research that goes into developing the report, and we expect to publish the plan itself in the first half of 2024.

Our aim is to send out 41,000 printed health information resources to hospitals and individuals – this target mirrors the number of people diagnosed with blood cancer each year. We will make sure our information is handed out in 75% of all hospitals that treat people with blood cancer, whilst we develop and test a potential new service model that we hope will transform the extent to which we can reach people affected by blood cancer who we are not currently supporting.

We will further increase awareness of our charity among people affected by blood cancer, taking us closer to our goal of 54% awareness by 2027-2028. And we’ll start building public awareness that blood cancer is one of the five most common cancers through public facing communications and activities. We’ll also increase the number of people we are in touch with, working towards our goal of reaching 75% of them by 2027-2028.

We will increase income from philanthropists and significant trusts and foundations and corporate partnerships, grow Walk of Light, and encourage more individual giving. We will also focus on community fundraising, giving people more ways to get involved wherever they are in the UK, taking on a challenge or activity that they want. We will also maintain our strong and positive culture across the department.

We want to spend the next year building on our already excellent culture by becoming more focused in how we work – doing fewer things, but better – and building our digital skills and ability to use data to make decisions.

Our aim is to maintain the number of staff recommending us as a good place to work at 98%. In order to do this, we will continue to focus on ensuring our high-performing staff have the tools they need to do their best work, and on recruiting and retaining a more diverse staff group, particularly focusing on people from ethnic minority groups and from lower socio-economic groups (where we are underrepresented at the moment).

We want to make the people involved in our decisions more diverse, ensuring our work meets the need of everyone affected by blood cancer.