For over a decade, we’ve led and supported impactful campaigns to improve outcomes for everyone affected by ovarian cancer across the UK.
From raising awareness and influencing policy to driving better care and earlier diagnosis, our past campaigns have helped create real change.
Explore some of the milestones that have shaped our work and continue to inspire progress today.
- Busting the cervical screening myth
Our Pathfinder research has shown that a shocking 40 per cent of women in the UK mistakenly believe that cervical screening can detect ovarian cancer.
We’ve therefore been calling for official information about cervical screening to be updated across all four nations of the UK, to address this potentially dangerous misconception.
During Gynaecological Cancer Awareness Month in September 2025, we launched a campaign – inviting our supporters to email their elected representatives about this issue and asking them to sign a letter to health ministers.
An amazing 2,021 emails were sent to MPs in England and MSs in Wales, MLAs in Northern Ireland and MSPs in Scotland. What’s more, a total of 97 elected representatives, across all four nations, agreed to sign our letters to the health ministers, with several others writing independently to them on this issue.
We secured support from across the political spectrum and, in Northern Ireland, four MLAs even raised this issue on the floor of the Assembly.
Groups of supporters joined us in Westminster, Holyrood and Stormont to mark the formal handing in of the elected representatives’ letters to the ministers.
As a direct result of our campaigning, official cervical screening information has now been amended in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
In all cases, it now states that cervical screening is not a check for ovarian cancer. We've received a commitment that similar updates will be made in Wales too.
In Northern Ireland, our campaigning on this issue resulted in us taking two of our campaigners to a face-to-face meeting with the Health Minister, Mike Nesbitt.
He was so moved by what they had to say that he then went on to make this video with them about the importance of ovarian cancer symptoms awareness more generally.
- The Three Targets
In October 2024, dozens of our campaigners at Westminster helped us launch a major new plan to transform the future of ovarian cancer.
This plan centred on our Three Targets:
- A government funded awareness campaign, including the symptoms of ovarian cancer.
- A shorter diagnostic pathway for ovarian cancer, with support and training for GPs.
- A funded national cancer plan that ensures everyone can access the best possible treatment, no matter where they live.
Within 16 months, substantial progress had been made on almost all three targets.
Updates to guidelines
In April 2026, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) issued a ground-breaking update to its guideline on recognising cancer and making referrals.
For the first time in England, Wales and Northern Ireland this advised GPs to arrange for younger women presenting with ovarian cancer symptoms to be referred for an ultrasound test as well as a CA125 blood test (as is currently the case in Scotland).
We warmly welcome this update though we would ultimately like to see all women with symptoms being offered dual testing.
National Cancer Plan
The National Cancer Plan for England was published in February 2026 – setting out a 10 year strategy to improve cancer outcomes, patient experience and equity across England.
We contributed extensively to the government’s consultation when drawing up the National Cancer Plan.
Our Chief Executive and two of our campaigners were even invited to Downing Street to meet the Prime Minister and Health Secretary, just ahead of its launch, and another of our campaigners was invited by the Department of Health and Social Care to appear in a short video that announced the Plan.
- Improving Scottish surgery access
Since 2023, we've been working with a group of brilliant women in the West of Scotland, all diagnosed between 2019 and 2023, to highlight serious issues with access to ovarian cancer surgery.
Their experiences revealed variation when it came to accessing treatment, many faced significant delays in receiving vital surgery. Delays that left them with little choice but to fund their own treatment and travel to England to access surgery privately.
Since we began campaigning on this issue almost three years ago, we've seen encouraging improvements in access to ovarian cancer surgery in the West of Scotland.
The number of women waiting longer than 18 weeks for surgery has fallen, and the number of women receiving six cycles of chemotherapy before surgery has more than halved.
Throughout our campaign, we engaged directly with key decision-makers, including former Cabinet Secretary for Health Neil Gray MSP, former Minister for Public Health and Women’s Health Jenni Minto MSP, and members of the Shadow Health Team, Jackie Baillie MSP and Carol Mochan MSP. We consistently made the case that a woman’s access to life-saving treatment should not depend on where she lives.
While progress has been made, significant questions remain. We continue to call for a national review of ovarian cancer surgery provision in Scotland to better understand why these disparities occurred and to ensure that women across the country have equitable access to specialist surgery and the best possible treatment.
Improving access to treatment remains one of our key campaigning priorities.
We look forward to continuing these discussions with the new health team, including Angela Constance MSP as Cabinet Secretary for Health, to ensure that every woman with ovarian cancer can access the care and treatment she needs, regardless of postcode.
- National Ovarian Cancer Audit
We collaborated with academics and other charities to bring about the creation of The National Ovarian Cancer Audit.
This is a vital initiative that gathers data from across England and Wales about many aspects of ovarian cancer diagnosis and treatment.
This allows patients to see, in granular detail, how their local cancer alliance is doing compared to national metrics. Information like this is crucial to ensuring that researchers and clinicians can learn what constitutes best practice.
We recognise the ever more important role of data in improving outcomes. We'll continue to build on the success of the National Ovarian Cancer Audit in ensuring that researchers, clinicians and patients themselves have the information they need to make the very best decisions.
