Can you Spot Leukaemia?

Each year we reach millions of people with our spot leukaemia campaign but despite our efforts, awareness of blood cancer amongst the public, as well as in primary healthcare, is still dangerously low and blood cancer continues to claim more lives than prostate or breast cancer every year.

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Currently, patients with leukaemia have a significantly higher rate of emergency diagnosis than other forms of cancer. The highest emergency presentation rates for any cancer type occur in acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL), at 66% of patients. This is a huge difference when compared with the overall cancer emergency presentation percentage (21%).

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Unfortunately many people aren’t aware of the signs and symptoms of leukaemia until they or someone they know is diagnosed. This leads to a delay in visiting a GP, which can delay a diagnosis, worsening the outcomes for patients.

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Quite often, due to the non-specific nature of the symptoms and relative rarity of leukaemia, people are misdiagnosed by their GP or attend several times before diagnosis. This means that there is a delay at primary healthcare. 

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We need your help in reaching the general public so that everyone is able to Spot Leukaemia sooner. 

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Read more about the recommendations we are calling for in our Spot Leukaemia policy found here.

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Read our Spot Leukaemia's 'Access to Blood Tests and Diagnosis of Leukaemia' report here.

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Early diagnosis saves lives