Our history

2017

• The Horizon Centre opens in Brighton, our first totally Macmillan-owned information and support centre.

2016

• The Cove Macmillan Support Centre opens, meaning we have information and support centres in every county in the UK.

2015

• We influence Government to ensure the 2015-2020 cancer strategy for England puts significant emphasis on improving patient experience across the whole cancer patient pathway, and the long-term side effects of treatment.

2014

• We become The Marketing Society's brand of the year.
• World’s Biggest Coffee Morning raises over £25 million for the first time.

2013

• Through our Putting the Fair into Welfare campaign, we make sure the needs of people living with cancer are recognised by the Government.

2012

• The groundbreaking UCH Macmillan Cancer Centre opens.

2011

• We publish research that shows the number of people living with and beyond cancer will double from 2 million in 2010 to 4 million in 2030.

2010

• We help shape the development of the first Cancer Strategy for England.

2009

• Macmillan Support Line opens, offering vital practical and emotional support to people by phone. Over 250,000 people call in the first three months.
• We successfully campaign for free prescriptions for cancer patients.

2008

• We merge with Cancerbackup so we can provide expert cancer information to everyone who needs it.

2006

• We change our name to Macmillan Cancer Support to help people better understand what we do. The unique and iconic Macmillan font is created. 

2005

• The first Macmillan-trained benefits adviser helps people with the cost of cancer.

2001

• Our first mobile Macmillan cancer information centre visits 51 sites across England, bringing information and support to more people than ever before.

1999

• Macmillan successfully lobbies The Oxford English Dictionary to change its inaccurate definition of cancer. 

1996

• We change our name to Macmillan Cancer Relief.

1993

• We open our first information and support centre – the Lynda Jackson Macmillan Centre at Mount Vernon Hospital, Middlesex.

• Backed by the Prince of Wales, the Macmillan Nurse Appeal raises £20 million.
• The World’s Biggest Coffee Morning is born! 300,000 people take part, raising over £250,000.

1987

• Fundraising hits £10 million for the first time. £7.7million is spent on services.

1986

• We fund the first Macmillan doctor.

1977

• Nurses funded by the Society are named ‘Macmillan nurses’ for the first time.
• We develop our funding model with the NHS – this new approach means we can have a much wider impact.

1975

• We build and equip the first Macmillan cancer care unit at Christchurch Hospital in Dorset.

1969

• Douglas Macmillan dies of cancer.

1954

• We continue to improve people’s experience of cancer by putting TVs in hospitals. They cost £90 each –  about £1,500 today.

1948

• National Health Service founded.

1932

• Two paid home visitors use a Society bicycle to visit people in their homes, supplying clothes, bedclothes and changing dressings.

1925

• We’re one of the first to recognise the financial cost of cancer, giving grants for medical fees, nursing care, clothing, artificial limbs and hot water bottles. 

1924

• The name is changed to National Society for Cancer Relief, moving away from the focus on prevention that had been key in the early years.

1911

• Douglas Macmillan sets up the Society for the Prevention and Relief of Cancer, determined to improve the experience of cancer after watching his father die.
• The new charity publishes ‘The Blue Book’; a groundbreaking study of cancer mortality in the UK.