Global Collaboration, Curing Cancer

Many of you may have seen the 'Stand up to Cancer' campaign which was aired on Channel 4 in October 2012, which asked for public donations in order to fund Cancer Research UK. Cancer Research UK are the world's leading charity dedicated to beating cancer through scientific research.

According to Cancer Research UK, they are on the cusp of many cancer treatments, however there is a gap between the discoveries coming out of the lab and the number that they can afford to take forward to develop as new tests and treatments.

To date, the 'Stand up to Cancer' National campaign has raised over £8 million pounds which is fantastic. However, we know it takes about £500 million to to take a drug all the way from the lab to the market; this figure takes into account all of the treatments that didn't make it.

Therefore, I personally feel that a faster way to close this monetary gap between scientific discoveries and bringing those treatment to the patients, was if the world's most profitable corporations all collaborated together and donated a small percentage of their pre-tax earnings to Cancer Research UK.

The more ideas that they can test, the more likely they are to get new treatments to patients faster. And as I say, there are many treatments that are on the cusp of being brought to market.

This may appear to be a large 'ask' of our profitable organisations, however sometimes the simplest ideas are the most effective if you have the collective power of many people.