Thank you for raising over £1 million for children with cancer

We are absolutely thrilled to announce that, thanks to your wonderful donations, our latest appeal to Give the Gift of Growing Up raised over £1 million for children with cancer in Bangladesh and around the world!

The appeal was match funded by the UK government where all donations made by the UK public were doubled with UK Aid Match, meaning all support went twice as far. Donations from the UK public amounted to £492,597 and was matched pound for pound by the UK government - amounting to a total of £1,011,859, including Gift Aid. The matched funds will support a three-year project in Bangladesh to help increase childhood cancer survival rates whilst public donations will fund World Child Cancer’s other programmes in low-and middle-income countries around the world.

Jon Rosser, World Child Cancer Chief Executive, comments: 

“We are enormously thankful to the UK public for their generosity in supporting children in Bangladesh, and across the globe. All children, no matter where they are born, deserve equal access to the best possible treatment and care. Most childhood cancers, if detected early enough, can be cured. It is our moral imperative to help these children and their families.”

Alok Sharma, Secretary of State for International Development added; 

“I am delighted the UK government has matched the British public’s generous donations to the ‘Gift of Growing Up’ UK Aid Match appeal, helping to raise more than £1 million. It is shocking that in 2019 alone, more than 6,000 children across Bangladesh are expected to be diagnosed with cancer. This money will ensure more medical staff are trained so that these vulnerable children receive the treatment they so desperately need.” 

Survival rates for childhood cancer in Bangladesh are as low as 10%. The matched funds will help ensure that as many of these children as possible receive accurate diagnoses, quality cancer treatment, and ample emotional support. By training healthcare professionals and empowering undervalued nurses, and by providing financial and emotional support to vulnerable families, World Child Cancer works to improve the standard of cancer care and to reduce the likelihood of treatment abandonment. This will ultimately help more children beat cancer.

Thank you for giving the Gift of Growing Up! Learn more about our current appeal to Close the Cancer Gap here.