There is an urgent need to develop breakthrough treatments for men with prostate cancer, and research is how we will achieve this. The COVID-19 pandemic has increased the urgency by causing significant delays to cancer diagnosis and treatment.

We supported our scientists throughout the pandemic, in addition to running a new grant call to provide a funding opportunity during a period when there was little available.

As prostate cancer patients are at higher risk from COVID-19, we worked hard to quickly provide information to prostate cancer patients regarding their health and safety in the pandemic. We published a patient story from a gentleman who attended a hospital appointment during the pandemic to reassure other patients about safety measures.

We also ran a survey to better understand patient experiences and plan to use this information to build better patient information programs.

4 Zoom calls, with appearances by 7 scientists and attended by 126 patients and supporters

37 men with prostate cancer engaged in an online research community led by two experienced researchers for 14 days

28 patient panelists reviewed our 2020 shortlist and helped us decide what new research to fund in 2021

• We completed our analysis of the funding gaps in prostate cancer.
• We will now run grant calls focusing on black men, who are at significantly higher risk and have worse outcomes, on the gaps in the science, and focused on career stages at which scientists most struggle to get funding. We will also make our first investments in translational research, helping move good ideas into the clinic.

• We made new appointments to our Scientific Advisory Committee and Board of Trustees to fill any gaps in experience and skills.
• We improved our contracts to ensure junior scientists get fairer recognition for their work.
• We will continue to analyze and assess our skills and experience and fill gaps that may exist in our Scientific Advisory Committee, Executive Advisory Group and Board of Trustees.

• We ran internal workshops on agility, strategy, and science to help us respond better to the pandemic and remain connected to our mission.
• We dramatically increased our connections
  to patients, through live (pre-pandemic) and
  virtual interactions, increased information
  provision though our website and booklet, and
  engaging patients in an online study.
• We will continue to invest in training internally, maintaining expenditure at double the sector average.

• We spoke at two large pharmaceutical events about best practice in involving patients.
• We were shortlisted for the Charity of the Year Change Project of the Year award.
• We will continue to create relationships and build partnerships to raise our profile.

• We signed contracts with two complementary prostate cancer charities and established regular catch-ups to align priorities and strategy with two other cancer research funders.
• We will expand our pilot work with biotechs to ensure that the patient voice is translated into the development of new treatments and diagnostics.

• We were able to expand to funding 14 projects.
• We adjusted our 2020 income goals, given we couldn’t carry out community fundraising due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and we achieved our modified non-legacy income.
• In 2021/22, we will run new grant calls to increase the number of projects we fund to 18.

We are focused on forming partnerships with like-minded organizations. We hope these collaborations will help us to:

• address the areas of unmet need in prostate cancer
• develop drugs through shared knowledge
• place patient voice at the heart of advances in the prostate cancer field

In 2020, we formed a partnership with the biotechnology company CellCentric, to help them better understand patient needs in drug development.

We are also working on a number of upcoming partnerships that we are excited to reveal in 2021.