About us

The Ralph Bates Pancreatic Cancer Research Fund was set up in January 1992 following the tragic death of the actor Ralph Bates, who starred in films such as “Dr Jekyll and Sister Hyde” from Hammer Films and the BBC TV series “Poldark” and “Dear John”. At that time there was no research into pancreatic cancer and his widow, Virginia, who is still active in the Charity, set up our Fund.

Pancreatic cancer is a nasty, debilitating and aggressive cancer which does not discriminate between sex or age. It can hit anyone at any time and has amongst the lowest survival rate of all cancers. Did you know that……

*Over 9500 people in the UK are diagnosed with the cancer each year-about 26 every day.

*Over 8500 people will die of the illness each year. 23 every day.

*The 5-year survival rate is 3%. This rate hasn’t improved in over 30 years and this is the only cancer where the survival rate hasn’t improved.

*A healthy pancreas helps you to lead a healthy life.

We provide grants for research into causes, diagnosis and treatment of pancreatic cancer. Our main research centre is at St George’s Hospital, University of London in Tooting. Recently, our research has indicated that exciting developments in the treatment of pancreatic cancer could be seen in the next few years. But there’s still a long way to go and research is expensive!

None of our Trustees is remunerated and none claim expenses.

Over 94% of all donations we receive is spent on research.