What your money can buy

This is how the money you raise will help Cancer Research UK with their vital life saving research:

Per Individual

  • £100 buys a Bunsen burner – a simple item that helps our scientists ignite our ground-breaking research on a daily basis.
  • £100 buys DNA nucleotides – chemical building blocks that make up a strand of DNA. Scientists use them to make copies of important genes, giving us clues about why things go wrong in cancer.
  • £250 buys 500 petri dishes that scientists use to grow and study cancer cells in.
  • £350 buys tiny fluorescent particles that scientists use to light up cancer cells.
  • £400 buys special chemicals, called antibodies, to light up vital, tiny parts of the cell, helping shed light on new ways to beat cancer sooner.

Per Team

  • £650 buys a handy tool that lets scientists accurately measure 12 things at once, speeding up the pace of our life-saving research.
  • £700 buys a pH meter to create the ideal environment for sensitive experiments that could hold clues to finding new ways to beat cancer sooner.
  • £750 buys a water bath to kick-start chemical reactions for successful cancer research experiments.
  • £1,000 buys tiny molecules that can hone in on cancer cells like miniscule seeker missiles, helping our scientists target cancer cells with smart drugs to hit this disease where it hurts.
  • £1,000 buys a set of high-tech pipettes that precisely measure tiny amounts of liquid, making sure our scientists get accurate results.
  • £2,000 buys a balance to weigh out exact amounts of chemicals that are vital to the success of experiments.

The Overall Event

PhD student

Our PhD students complete a 4-year training programme to equip them with the skills they’ll need to make the research breakthroughs of the future. We fund around 400 PhD students in labs across the country.

£35,000 could fund a PhD student for 1 year.

Research nurse

Research nurses are clinical experts, who raise awareness of our trials and support patients during their treatment.

£40,000 could fund a research nurse for 1 year.

Developing imaging tools for early detection

At the CRUK Cambridge Institute, Dr Sarah Bohndiek and her team of biologists, engineers and physicists at the CRUK Cambridge institute, are developing new imaging tools for cancer. These tools will help scientists understand how the tumour’s surroundings affect cancer progression and could allow doctors to catch more cases earlier.

It costs around £40,000 to fund Dr Sarah Bohndiek and her team, developing imaging technology to spot cancer earlier for 5 months.

Nurses’ helpline

Our expert team of cancer nurses are on hand to offer confidential support and guidance to people affected by cancer. The nurses are available every weekday and are happy to answer any questions or concerns about a cancer diagnosis, symptoms or treatment options.

There are 10 cancer nurses, and they answer around 12,000 enquiries each year.

It costs around £40,000 to fund our team of 10 cancer