A Financial Update from Penny Brohn UK
Since our beginnings over 40 years ago, and thanks to your ongoing commitment and generosity, we have made huge strides towards our vision, where every adult with cancer in the UK is able to access integrative cancer care. Last year alone we were able to support over 2,000 people. I can’t thank you enough for being part of this.
Following my appointment as Chief Executive of Penny Brohn UK in December 2022, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on everything we have achieved together and share my vision for the future for our services for people with cancer.
Following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and two years of tenacity, hard work and resilience, we have managed to keep our services running, primarily online, to ensure our support was there for those who needed us. During these two years, we had to make difficult choices to cut our spend on core services and reduce the size of the services team by half.
I am incredibly proud of our team for what they achieved, providing support that has been a lifeline for so many. Together we ensured that people with cancer and their loved ones across the UK still received the vital support they needed during some of the most challenging times.
This has been a huge step forward for Penny Brohn UK.
As we look to the future, our ambition is to deliver a unique hybrid services model, blending the best of online and the best of in-person services, allowing people with cancer to experience support in their own time and in their own way. In 2022 we took small steps to realise this dream, successfully reintroducing a small number of in-person sessions.
The feedback from these sessions has been outstanding and we want to be able to continue them. However, we are now faced with a new challenge. We ended 2022 with a deficit of just over half a million pounds due to fundraising challenges and the cost-of-living crisis, and we have had to reduce our spend on our core services to just £400,000.
Like many charities, we must continue to balance the financial challenges with the demands for our services. Every decision we take is guided by the aim of minimising the impact on the thousands of people each year who require our help.
Our passion and determination are still as strong as ever, and we must not lose sight of Penny’s original vision and the exceptional services the charity provides. Together, we have tackled several unprecedented years head-on and we are still standing, in no small part thanks to the support you have given us.
