Kate's Cancer Campaign
15 Oct 2013
Investing in Success is a £1 million initiative to boost staff development that has resulted in a fascinating array of projects which show just how passionate our people are about their work here at the University.
A nationwide campaign to make students, teenagers and young adults under 30 more aware that cancer can affect them has been boosted by an IIS award to Dr Kate Vaughan.
“It is commonly acknowledged that cancer mainly affects older groups,” says Kate, “But about 2,500 young people in the 13-24 age range are affected by cancer every year. We have to make these young people more aware of the common signs to look out for.”
Kate’s role as Manchester Teenage Cancer Trust Programme Manager supports research, led by Professor John Radford, into cancer in young people.
As Kate is based on the Young Oncology Unit at The Christie, she is only too aware of the struggles that patients in this age group and their families go through every day, especially if diagnosis has been delayed.
But she and the “brilliant team” she works with get out and about, talking to students across the country in schools and universities to spread the word.
Key to their message is: “Look for five symptoms” - a lump, bump or swelling; pain; fatigue; changes in weight; and changes in appearance of a mole.
Sometimes it’s cancer. But only sometimes. “We’re not scaremongering,” says Kate. “Most of the time it will be nothing at all to worry about.”
In Kate, the campaign could not have a more enthusiastic or dynamic champion. “We have a long way to go,” she says. “But the Investing in Success award is a real boost at the right time.”
Her successful bid has enabled her to extend the awareness programme, do market research among students, and set up a website and a Facebook page. You can find out more at:
Share your story
Did you receive funding from the Investing in Success initiative? If so, share your story with us by emailing uninews@manchester.ac.uk.