Macmillan
We helped Macmillan grow into a more public role, as an enabler of cancer support. With an accessible new brand – and fresh confidence – fundraising increased by £26 million within two years.
Cancer used to be a word that made people very uncomfortable. It was discussed largely behind closed doors, while relief organisations like Macmillan used institutional settings – surgeries and hospitals – to reach out to patients.
Macmillan were best-known for their nurses and the end-of-life care they provided. Yet this valuable role came with a harmful side-effect: a public perception of the nurses as 'angels of death'.
In keeping with the sector at this time, Macmillan were institutional in their behaviour. And their communications felt institutional, which gave limited scope for tackling the broader impact of cancer.
But the landscape in the UK was changing, as relationships between charities and their supporters took on more of a two-way, mutually-beneficial nature. It was also becoming clear that people living with cancer could benefit from a new kind of support: less clinical in the hospital, more social and practical in the community. These factors combined to put Macmillan on the cusp of a new and far bigger role in supporting those affected by cancer.
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