Reflecting on 2024: a year of transition and expansion

This year, we’ve been driving policy change to prevent cancer and improve public health globally and locally. Here are some of our highlights:

Global advocacy and engagement

Kendra Chow at WCC 2024

As part of our official relations status, we continue to work closely with the World Health Organization (WHO). This year was exceptionally busy as we expanded our engagement across 6 WHO teams and attended the Executive Board and World Health Assembly, where we made interventions (“statements”) across many agenda item areas.

• WHO Executive Board Statements: 7, including on wellbeing and health promotion, and social determinants of health.
• WHO World Health Assembly: delivered 6 impactful statements, 6 meetings with WHO officials and 5 meetings with civil society.
• WHO meetings: 5 meetings throughout the year with WHO staff to discuss collaboration.
• WHO consultations: contributed to 5 consultations including the WHO Director General report for the fourth UN High-Level Meeting (HLM) on non-communicable diseases (NCDs), and on Non-State Actors in official relations.
• Mission meetings and briefings: held meetings with 7 different country missions and developed 1 detailed mission briefing on our key priorities for the World Health Assembly.

Policy development and thought leadership

Our Alcohol and Cancer Risk brief

We advanced our policy work by publishing a major policy position, monitoring emerging issues, responding to consultations, contributing to a parliamentary inquiry, and launching new advocacy priorities in the UK. We’ve also continued to promote and advance our CO-CREATE project outputs.

• Published our comprehensive Alcohol and Cancer Risk policy position (which has been downloaded over 2,000 times!), along with a new dedicated section on our website.
• Monitored developments and engaged experts on the links between ultra-processed food and cancer.
• Responded to 1 international (on Norway’s forthcoming marketing restrictions) and 5 UK consultations (including the National Planning Policy Framework, which looks at how planning system can help our communities to be healthier).
• Provided evidence (PDF) to the House of Lord’s Select Committee on Food, Diet and Obesity.
• Introduced new policy priorities in the UK, strengthening our cancer prevention advocacy.
• 3 external partners utilised our NOURISHING and MOVING policy frameworks and tools, including the OECD, which used data from our NOURISHING and MOVING policy briefs for its 2024 report Beating Cancer Inequalities in the EU.

Communications and awareness

We enhanced our communications by redeveloping our website, producing podcasts and blogs, publishing newsletters, and co-signing advocacy letters to key policymakers.

• Redeveloped and revised all the Policy pages on our new website and developed a new document library to house our statements, consultations, reports and policy tools.
• Featured in Movendi International’s podcast episode on How WCRFI Wants to Galvanize Governments to Address Alcohol’s Direct Link to Cancer.
• Published 10 blogs including a closer look at alcohol labelling, infant formula and baby foods, commercial determinants and this 2024 wrap-up.
• Published 13 monthly newsletters and newsflashes to over 1,100 subscribers.
• Endorsed 9 letters to the Prime Minister, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, and Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Public Health and Prevention advocating policy change in the UK.

Collaboration and representation

We strengthened our advocacy by participating in major conferences, maintaining global research partnerships, hosting advisory meetings, and contributing to the development of key policy recommendations.

• Participated in 5 major conferences (European Congress on Obesity, World Cancer Congress, World Health Summit, International Society for Physical Activity and Health, European Public Health Conference). We also attended the Labour Party conference in the UK for the first time.
• Maintained valuable research partnerships with organisations around the world and hosted 2 Policy Advisory Group meetings.
• Continued contributing to the development of the policy recommendations that will accompany the forthcoming 5th European Code Against Cancer.

Team updates

We’ve had some changes in our team too.

Hellos and goodbyes: said farewell to Jennifer O’Mara, our Senior Policy and Public Affairs Officer, and Rebecca Taylor, our maternity cover Head of Policy and Public Affairs; and welcomed back our Head of Policy and Public Affairs Kate Oldridge-Turner. We look forward to our new Senior Policy and Public Affairs Officer, Melissa Dando, joining us in the new year.

Looking ahead to 2025

• We’re excited to launch our Policy Blueprint for Cancer Prevention in the new year – a new resource that draws together our Cancer Prevention Recommendations with our policy recommendations. Join us at the launch on 29 January 2025.
• Cancer Prevention Action Week: Join us for our week-long awareness raising campaign on alcohol and cancer risk in June 2025.
• We’ll be actively engaged in the 4th UN HLM on Non-Communicable Diseases, taking place in September 2025. Our focus will be for cancer prevention commitments to be included in the Political Declaration.
• 5th European Code Against Cancer: we’ll be supporting the launch of the new code in September 2025.

Thank you for your continued support – we are grateful for all the collaborations with our partners. Here’s to another year of impactful advocacy and policy work in 2025! Don’t forget you can sign up to our monthly newsletter straight into your inbox.