Abstract

After some 15 years working as a layman with neurological diseases, I was persuaded that it was a natural step to apply to the larger theatre of cancer the lessons I had painstakingly learned with the UK Multiple Sclerosis (MS) Society and earlier with the Motor Neurone Disease (MND) Association. Since the end of 2001 I have been working for Macmillan Cancer Relief, one of the three large cancer foundations in Britain – Cancer Research UK, the product of the merger of the Imperial Cancer Research Fund with the Cancer Research Campaign, Marie Curie Cancer Care and Macmillan Cancer Relief.

MEASURING THE DIFFERENCE

The contrast in sheer scale and complexity of the two fields in the UK alone is striking. One example is the size and longevity of the lay organizations: while the neurological charities were recognizable in their present form little more than 30years ago, many of the cancer charities