The announcement of a new £10 million Travel Fund for children and young people with cancer, marked a major milestone for one Polimapper client.
The commitment from the government, which arrived via the National Cancer Plan for England, follows years of campaign work by Young Lives vs Cancer.
Through its ‘Running on empty’ campaign Young Lives vs Cancer called for measures to ensure families can access specialist treatment without the burden of prohibitive travel costs.
Young Lives vs Cancer utilised Polimapper’s suite of tools to build policymaker support for their campaign by showing them how far their constituents had to travel to treatment centres.
A long-term commitment
The government’s announcement of a travel fund is the result of years of campaigning. Supporting families with the cost of travel was a founding principle for Young Lives vs Cancer, and they have campaigned specifically for a dedicated fund for the last decade.
Because treatment is only available at specialist treatment centres, families often travel long distances, at a cost of £250 every month on average, while many are also managing the financial pressure of a reduced income.
Young Lives vs Cancer noted that this £10 million package – which they modelled to ensure it could support everyone impacted – will be “transformative to the lives of young cancer patients” and their families.
Additionally, the Cancer Plan now includes a dedicated chapter for children and young people, a priority Young Lives vs Cancer has long called for alongside others in the sector.
Visualising the challenge
Polimapper’s interactive constituency dashboards supported the Young Lives vs Cancer policy and public affairs team to secure this win.
To help highlight the issue to political stakeholders in terms they would understand, Polimapper calculated the distance from the centre point of each parliamentary constituency to the nearest specialist treatment centre.
Each constituency dashboard, for both Westminster and the devolved parliaments, highlighted the distance and the projected costs for constituents.
Reflecting on the success of the campaign, Young Lives vs Cancer said: “Your support has been vital to help achieve this significant policy campaign win – helping us raise awareness of the issue and the experiences of children, young people and their families, and helping articulate the travel distances to specialist centres across the UK.
“The travel distance maps really helped us put this message across and has been integral to the campaign.”
Next steps
The government expects the fund to be in place from 2027 for young cancer patients (aged 0-24) and their families in England.
While there is still work ahead regarding the fund’s practical operation, and any impact on families in the devolved nations, this is a significant moment and one we are glad to have played a part in. To read more about the strategy behind the campaign, you can view the full case study here.
