For journalists

Mark Bhagwandin, Communications Manager.

📞 07973261747

Email: mark.bhagwandin@sarcoma.org.uk

Neil Wyatt, PR and Communications Officer.

📞 07394354821

Press enquiries: pressoffice@sarcoma.org.uk

Kerry Reeves-Kneip, Director of Communications and Fundraising.

📞 07739109287

Email: kerry.reeves-kneip@sarcoma.org.uk

• Sarcomas are uncommon cancers that can affect any part of the body, on the inside or outside, including the muscle, bone, tendons, blood vessels and fatty tissues.
• 15 people are diagnosed with sarcoma every day in the UK. That’s about 5,300 people a year.
• There are around 100 different sub-types of sarcoma.
• Sarcoma UK is a national charity that funds vital research, offers support for anyone affected by sarcoma and campaigns for better treatments.

Facts and figures about sarcoma

• Sarcoma is more common than previously thought. In 2015 there were 5,345 people diagnosed with sarcoma cancer in the UK.
• There are three main types of sarcoma: soft tissue sarcoma, bone sarcoma and gastrointestinal stromal tumours (GIST).
• Sarcoma diagnoses now make up about 1.3% of all cancer diagnoses in the UK.
• About 670 cases of bone sarcoma are diagnosed every year in the UK.
• Seven in ten (71%) sarcomas diagnosed in the UK are soft tissue sarcomas.
• The majority of people are diagnosed when their sarcoma is about the size of a large tin of baked beans (10cm).
• Awareness of sarcoma is low. According to a YouGov poll conducted in April 2019, 75% of people in the UK do not know or are not sure what sarcoma is.

Survival Rates

• Sarcoma survival rates have been very gradually increasing over the last two decades in the UK.
• Almost eight in 10 people (78%) diagnosed with sarcoma in the UK will live up to a year.
• The average percentage of people living three years after being diagnosed with sarcoma in the UK is 64.5%.
• The five-year survival rate for sarcoma is 55%.

About Sarcoma UK

• Sarcoma UK is a national charity that funds vital research, offers support for anyone affected by sarcoma and campaigns for better treatments.
• The charity’s mission is to ensure everyone affected by sarcoma receives the best treatment, care, information and support available and to create the treatments of the future.
• Sarcoma UK has helped more than 1400 individuals who use our support services an average of three times since we launched it in February 2016.
• The charity is now one of the biggest funders of sarcoma research in the UK, having invested more than £6.8 million in 87 research projects to date.

Downing Street Partnership

• Sarcoma UK was chosen as 10 Downing Street’s Charity of the Year (2016)  in memory of Chris Martin, Principal Private Secretary to the Prime Minister, who died of sarcoma in November 2015.