With no family history of the disease and with her being so young, Sarah’s diagnosis came as a terrible shock. And now, a team of experts from The Christie are working to identify young women who are most at risk from breast cancer. With a donation from you today, they’re hoping to continue their work to make sure these young women can get the screening and preventative treatments they need.
The Sarah Harding Breast Cancer Appeal
Before Sarah died, Sarah spoke to her consultant Dr Sacha Howell about his research into breast cancer. It was so important to Sarah that other young women should not have to go through what she had.
Working with Dr Howell, The Christie Charity set up the Sarah Harding Breast Cancer Appeal. This is in Sarah’s memory and aims to make sure that young women in the future are given the best possible chance of survival.
Sadly, Sarah didn’t get to see the launch of our project. She died on 5 September 2021, aged just 39, with her mother Marie at her side. More women aged 30 to 50 die of breast cancer than from any other cause.
Thanks to the BCAN-RAY (Breast Cancer Risk Assessment in Young Women) study funded by The Christie Charity’s Sarah Harding Breast Cancer Appeal, experts are now working to detect breast cancer in young women at the very earliest stages. We need your help to continue this vital work.
Please give to The Sarah Harding Breast Cancer Appeal today and help young women at risk of breast cancer.
Your gift can also help to create a legacy for Sarah. That’s the wish of Francesca, who was one of Sarah’s closest friends. Read Francesca’s story to see her memories of Sarah and how she wants to honour Sarah’s last request to raise money for breast cancer research trials.
How our specialists are working to help women at risk of breast cancer
Breast cancer has one of the highest survival rates of all cancers if it is caught early. But around 1 in 5 women diagnosed with breast cancer in the UK is under the screening age of 50.
Because of this, breast cancer is the most common cause of death in women aged 30 to 50 years. These women tend to come forward with more advanced cancers because they do not have the mammograms which are there to diagnose breast cancer early.
Dr Howell’s research is working to change this. Your donation could be used to help fund a vital project that we hope will lead to a national breast cancer risk assessment programme. This could lead to those identified as increased risk being offered early screening and preventive therapies.
This could help so many women at risk of breast cancer – women like Natalie. Natalie says that early detection is so important in cancer diagnosis and if her diagnosis had been delayed any longer, she might not have survived. Read Natalie's story and see why she supports more research into identifying breast cancer at a younger age.
With your help, Dr Howell, his team of specialists and his collaborators will carry out a study of over 950 young women. They want to work out whether breast density is as strong a risk factor for breast cancer in this age group as it is in older women. This will then be combined with genetic analyses and risk factor questionnaires to provide the most accurate individual evaluation of risk.
You can read about Dr Howell’s research in more detail below, and what's happened so far.
What do we know so far?
750 volunteers – women aged 30 to 39 – were recruited via GP surgeries in the local area covered by The Christie. Each volunteer filled out a questionnaire, had a mammogram (breast scan) and gave a saliva DNA sample.
By analysing the results, Dr Howell’s team found 140 women at ‘increased risk’ and 610 at ‘average risk’ of breast cancer. They're then having consultations with these women about how they can reduce their risk through exercise, diet and medication.
The 140 women at increased risk will then start annual mammographic screening at or before age 40 until their NHS screening starts at age 50.
Help vital breast cancer research continue
Breast cancer is the leading cause of death in women aged 30 to 55 years in the UK. But the BCAN-RAY study, funded by The Christie Charity’s Sarah Harding Breast Cancer Appeal, is making breakthroughs and saving lives. Your donation today will keep hope alive for many more young women.
Thanks to our amazing supporters, we’re now entering phase two of the BCAN-RAY study. Set up in the name of Girls Aloud singer Sarah Harding, it aims to identify young women at higher risk of breast cancer, so that we can give them the best possible chance of survival.
What’s happening in phase two?
Thanks to funding from The Sarah Harding Breast Cancer Appeal, Dr Hannah Harrison has joined the BCAN-RAY study full-time. Her work focuses on preventing breast cancer in young women.
Dr Harrison has led the development of a world-first laboratory model using real human breast tissue. This breakthrough allows scientists to mimic real-life hormonal changes and test how prevention drugs work, revealing why some treatments fail and where new opportunities lie.
Early results show that personalised prevention may be possible. It means Dr Harrison and her team could select the right preventive therapy for each individual woman, giving women the best chance to avoid breast cancer altogether.