Pancreatic Cancer Research Fund
Launching a clinical study on pancreatic cancer
Pancreatic Cancer Research Fund (PCRF) is the national charity exclusively dedicated to funding research into the UK’s deadliest cancer, to improve the 5% survival rate. In 2019, PCRF funded a clinical trial into a biomarker test in urine, which if successful, will deliver the world’s first early diagnostic test for pancreatic cancer.
Working hard to keep stakeholders informed and engaged helped us deliver a great publicity package for this charity.
The brief
The charity asked us to maximise media coverage for the launch of the £1.6M UroPanc study, led by Professor Tatjana Crnogorac-Jurcevic of Barts Cancer Institute, Queen Mary University of London.
Our challenges included helping Professor Crnogorac-Jurcevic explain the complex science behind the test and devise ways of presenting this science that would be engaging both to our media contacts and to the thousands of PCRF supporters and fundraisers.
We also needed to liaise with the many institutions and organisations involved in the collaborative study so that everyone was clear about the strategy and had everything they needed to publicise their involvement in the study through their own communications channels.
Our response
We worked with press officers at Queen Mary University of London to produce video clips for social media and organised an image bank to accompany our press release and Q&A document explaining the trial, the clinical need and its potential impact. We worked closely with selected journalists to shape the story and organise interviews and filming.
We also involved several PCRF supporters whose families had been affected by pancreatic cancer and who were happy to help amplify our messages about the need for earlier detection of this disease. We co-ordinated the timing of the media announcement around the limited availability of the main researcher and the supporter case studies, plus the imminent publication of the charity’s newsletter, which featured the clinical study on its front page.
The results
The story was covered extensively by the media, with more than 400 pieces of regional, national and international coverage.
Highlights included pieces broadcast on ITV, Sky News and Channel Five, and print coverage in the i, Mail Online, Daily Mirror, Daily Express, the Sun, the Daily Star and Metro.
In addition, we were able to spread the word to PCRF supporters via video clips on the charity’s social media feeds and newsletter.
It’s always incredibly exciting to see our stories getting the attention they deserve, but it’s particularly rewarding to achieve this for PCRF which works so hard to improve outcomes for patients with this lethal disease.