Social media cancer drive raises £8 million
pharmafile | March 26, 2014 | News story | Medical Communications, Sales and Marketing | CRUK, Cancer, funding
A social media campaign in which women post pictures of themselves wearing no make-up has helped raise more than £8 million for cancer research in just eight days.
Donations to charity Cancer Research UK (CRUK) started to skyrocket last week as an increasing number of Facebook, Twitter and Instagram users got involved, accompanying photos with pleas to donate and the hashtag #nomakeupselfie.
Dr Harpal Kumar (pictured), chief executive of CRUK, says: “We’ve been overwhelmed by the support people have been showing us through the #nomakeupselfie trend.
He adds: “We don’t receive any government funding for our research and so it’s phenomenal to think that the generosity of the public is enabling us to fund critical research that we didn’t have the money for six days ago.
“Being able to fund more trials will bring forward the day when all cancers are cured. It’s been an exciting week, and we’d just like to thank everyone again for their support.”
The charity has confirmed that the money raised so far will be used to fund 10 clinical trials, including studies of nine potential new treatments.
A CRUK statement said that the therapies’ targets are sarcoma, acute myeloid leukaemia, neuroblastoma, liver, head and neck, breast, prostate, bladder and oesophageal cancers.
The statement continued: “The trials cover a range of treatment approaches including chemotherapy, hormone therapy and radiotherapy, as well as sample collection for a study looking at how a person’s genetic makeup affects their response to radiotherapy.”
The precise source of the campaign remains unclear – when contacted by Pharmafile, CRUK were unable to offer a definitive answer.
However, British newspaper the Daily Mail claims that 18-year-old Fiona Cunningham from Stoke-on-Trent started the fundraising movement last week.
The newspaper reports that it was Cunningham’s idea to latch on to the already popular #nomakeupselfie trend to encourage charitable donations.
She set up the ‘No Makeup Selfie for Cancer Awareness’ Facebook page on 18 March – and within a few days it had over a quarter of a million ‘likes’.
Several derivations of the campaign have also emerged, including one in which men post pictures of themselves wearing make-up to encourage contributions.
In another development, thousands of people donating by SMS accidentally sent money to the wrong charity after an incorrect text number was circulated.
Children’s charity UNICEF, which was mistakenly pledged more than £18,000 as a result, confirmed that it would pass on the erroneously donated money to CRUK.
Hugh McCafferty
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