We're taking on the Purplewave challenge to...

Support desperately needed research

Manchester is home to cutting edge research breakthroughs. Over the years we have seen pioneering work into how to prevent, diagnose and treat cancer, which has benefited millions of people worldwide. Despite this progress, cancer will touch most of us at some point in our lives. There are more than one thousand cancer diagnoses every day. That is a cancer diagnosis every two minutes. And one in two of us will get cancer within our lifetimes.

We are proud of the work we have done so far, but we know more must be done. Research into rare forms of cancer is often sidelined, as drug companies prioritise treatments for the most common cancers. Here at The University of Manchester, we want to fight cancer on all fronts. By fundraising today, you can give help scale up our cancer research team, and give early career researchers the chance to find answers to cancer’s unsolved problems.

Make a breakthrough happen sooner

The more research we do, the more breakthroughs we can reach into more types of cancer.

Take Jonathan, who has recently started his PhD here at Manchester – funded by gifts from our supporter community. Jonathan’s research is focused on small cell lung cancer and trying to solve one of cancer’s most urgent problems: drug resistance. He’s aiming to identify the mechanism that enables this type of cancer to acquire resistance to chemotherapy drugs. Jonathan’s work, which could pave the way for breakthrough treatments that save thousands of lives a year, is only happening because the University community supported him.

Jonathan, donor-funded PhD student in cancer science

By fundraising today, you’ll put more early career researchers like Jonathan in the lab – doing the hard science required to speed up progress, meaning we’ll get the answers we need faster.

Expand Manchester’s cancer research team

Manchester University is Europe’s leading cancer research centre. It is an inspiring place, full of the brightest minds who are working to find solutions to the world’s most pressing problems. Right now, over 700 researchers are working hard on solutions to cancer. Many feel they are on the cusp of major breakthroughs. Manchester is a beacon of hope for all those affected by cancer.

And by taking part in Purplewave 2025, you’ll help scale up our cancer research team, who will tackle vital areas of research such as helping to understand cancers, early detection and developing kinder, better therapies.

This is a wonderful chance to bring more early career cancer researchers to Manchester.

We're taking on Purplewave 2025 to support research that matters to us all.

And did you know you can take part in the Purplewave as a team?

To enter:

Share the event page with friends, colleagues, or family who you think would want to form a team. Each person must individually sign up and create their own fundraising page.

Assign a team leader. This person will ‘create a team’ to join the fundraising pages together.

Every member of the team must be fundraising for the same cause.

Every member of the team must hit the minimum £60 target.

The team which raises the most money by 31 May will win a £150 UoM hospitality on campus voucher, so you can celebrate your achievement together.