About our work

We are a community of patients, survivors, volunteers, supporters, health and social care professionals and researchers. We are working towards a future where nobody in Ireland will die from cancer.

Edel Brangan, Support Line Cancer Nurse. Edel looks direct to camera with a warm smile. Edel is wearing a headphone set, ready to receive calls.

We won't stop until fewer people receive a cancer diagnosis, until everyone who does survives it and until everyone who needs it receives world class care and support.

Our values

We are compassionate and caring

Everyone’s cancer journey is individual and we reflect that in everything we do. From the time you are diagnosed, right through to treatment and beyond, we provide personal support that is right for you

We are inclusive

Whoever you are and wherever you come from, we are here for you. We are working hard to ensure that everyone in Ireland has the same access to care and support during their cancer journey.

We demand excellence from ourselves and others

We are constantly demanding more of ourselves and others on your behalf. We always believe there is room for improvement and we strive for excellence in all we do. Our services and decisions are informed by best quality knowledge, data and expertise.

We value collaboration

Collaborating and working in partnership with world-class medical professionals, researchers, organisations and supporters helps us to deliver more. We want to be inspired and to improve by challenging ourselves and by benchmarking ourselves against world-class results. We build alliances and work with local communities and global partners to deliver best results.

We are accountable and transparent.

We work to the highest standards of governance and financial management. This means we are honest, ethical and efficient in our work. We hold ourselves accountable for the delivery of our goals and objectives

We support sustainability

We care about our communities and environment. We strive to be a sustainable organisation and minimise our impact on the world around us.

Our leadership

Seven senior leadership team members pictured in front of a blue background

Our team is at the heart of the we do at the Irish Cancer Society.

Operating under Chief Executive Officer, Averil Power, and supported by our Executive Leadership Team, we are committed to devoted to researching the origin and causes, relief, cure, treatment, prevention, lessening and alleviation of cancer, or any disease of an allied or similar nature.

The Irish Cancer Society has a voluntary Board of Directors which meets at least six times a year. The Directors are responsible for the governance of the organisation.

What we do

We are a community determined to help anyone affected by cancer in Ireland

We listen to patients and their loved ones and we support them by providing free information and care. We fund cancer research to find better treatments that will save more lives. We work to keep cancer on the Government’s agenda, to make sure the Irish healthcare system functions as well as possible to help cancer patients and their loved ones through their diagnosis.

Providing free cancer information and support

Our team of cancer nurses provide free cancer information and support to anyone affected by cancer. They do so in our 13 Daffodil Centres in hospitals nationwide and on our Freephone Support Line.

In 2024 10,700 Freephone Support Line calls and emails were answered - an increase of 8% on the previous year.

Working to ensure more cancers are caught early

To achieve this we lead advocacy campaigns, innovate services, fund research, and work in partnerships that will eliminate the survival gap between Ireland and other European countries. We are working to give people the best chance of surviving cancer.

Our nurse-led community outreach initiative - the Your Health Matters Roadshow - provides free health checks in shopping centres in areas around the country. The Roadshow aims to reduce people’s risk of cancer and improve early detection rates. We also partner with organisations such as the Capuchin Day Centre to deliver this care and information to their clients.

In 2024 1,950 health checks were conducted at our early detection roadshows nationwide.

Funding life-changing cancer research

The Irish Cancer Society currently funds over 120 cancer researchers across Ireland working to development new and better treatments for many different types of cancer.

Our research has led to hundreds of discoveries. Each of these new findings have been published in international peer reviewed journals, making this knowledge available to researchers worldwide.

Key to our research programmes is that patients are at the heart of it. We are leaders in Patient and Public Involvement in research (PPI) and strive to ensure that the patient voice is at the heart of everything we fund.

Keeping cancer on the Government’s agenda

Through our cancer advocacy campaigning, we listen to patients and lobby the Government to make those patients’ lives better.

We work to influence policy, legislation and national budgets so that patients are at the heart of cancer services and cancer care. We push Government to take action to improve the quality of life for patients and to make decisions that will help to reduce the number of people getting cancer and improve survival rates.

Raising funds to carry out our mission

Each year the Irish Cancer Society is able to provide free information, care and support to people across Ireland who are affected by cancer. These activities come at a cost of more than €20 million each year.

Because the Society typically receives only 5% of its funding from the Government, we rely on donations, fundraising campaigns and our network of charity shops to raise the funds needed to carry out our mission.

Our memberships and accreditations

We are connected to many Irish and International organisations – as members, affiliates or accredited members.

The Helplines Association (THA)
Union for International Cancer Control (UICC)
Association of European Cancer Leagues (ECL)
Medical Research Charities Group (MRCG)
Care Alliance Ireland
The Wheel
European Forum for Good Clinical Practice (EFGCP)
Irish Management Institute (IMI)
Institute of Directors in Ireland (IOD)
The Institute of Certified Public Accountants in Ireland (CPA)
Dublin Chamber of Commerce
Irish Charities Tax Reform Group (The Atlantic Philantropies)
The Irish Community Forum
Charities Institute Ireland

Our impact

Nothing we do would be possible without the support of the Irish public.

With only around 5% of our income typically coming from Government each year everything we deliver is because of the generosity of our supporters.

Together we are there for people affected by cancer across Ireland through our free information, advice and support services.

An Irish Cancer Society cancer nurse stands at the entrance to a Daffodil Centre

Your impact in 2024

In 2024 our supporters generously funded:

• More than 26,000 free lifts to bring cancer patients to and from their treatment
nationwide through the Irish Cancer Society Transport Service.
• More than 16,000 free counselling sessions for those affected by cancer.
•More than 6,000 nights of Night Nursing care, to allow cancer patients to die at home, surrounded by their loved ones.
• More than 28,000 supportive and comforting conversations with people
affected by cancer through the Irish Cancer Society Support Line and Daffodil Centres nationwide.
• 176 families to avail of the Irish Cancer Society Children’s Fund to help
with the cost of a childhood cancer diagnosis.