Cure Leukaemia’s main objective in 2017 was to raise an additional £1 million to full fund the £3.4 million redevelopment of the Centre for Clinical Haematology at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham. The project doubled the facility’s capacity to treat blood cancer patients, run potentially life-saving clinical trials and employ specialist research nurses to run the trials.

Cure Leukaemia were successful in raising the capital required for this project and the Centre reopened to treat patients on 8th January 2018. The impact of the Centre’s expansion has seen patients treated rise from 10,000 to 20,000 per year as well as waiting times which have been dramatically reduced since opening.

Also in 2017, Cure Leukaemia was chosen ahead of 90 other UK charities to become one of Deutsche Bank’s UK Charities of the Year for 2018 and 2019. This partnership has the potential to be worth £2 million and will provide the ongoing funding required at the CCH and also enable the work the charity supports to extend across the UK.

The year culminated in securing Deutsche Bank’s national support, a partnership that will transform Cure Leukaemia in the coming years and that would not have been possible without the dedication and innovation shown by the charity’s team of just five employees in 2017.

Highlighting why Cure Leukaemia won this award the Charity Times judging panel said: “This charity raised significant new funds by punching far above their size and succeeded through clever analysis of how they achieved their goals and excellent demonstration of impact.”