Marie Curie Cancer Care is a charity that helps people with cancer. We care for people in their own homes at the end of their lives or in our hospices so they don’t have to go into hospital.
We care for more than 31,000 patients each year but we need to raise over £13,000 every hour of every day to fund our work. Many people, including children and teenagers, help us raise the money we need by doing things like sponsored tea parties or planting bulbs and much, much more.
Every minute of every day, someone is being cared for at home by a Marie Curie Nurse. Our nurses work in communities across the UK – from remote Scottish islands through villages and towns to our biggest cities – and their care is always free to patients and their families.
We have nine Marie Curie Hospices across the UK. Our hospice staff specialise in helping people with illnesses including cancer, motor neurone disease and heart disease.Some people come for the day while other may stay for a few days if they need extra care and attention.
We carry out research to find better ways of caring for people at the end of their lives. This is called palliative care research.
We also fund scientists to investigate the causes and treatment of cancer.
Our charity was established in 1948 - the same year as the NHS. Click here for a brief history of Marie Curie Cancer Care.
We are named after the scientist Marie Curie who was born in 1867 in Poland. She discovered radium – which was for many years used in a treatment for cancer called radiotherapy. Marie Curie was twice awarded the Nobel Prize: for Physics in 1903 and Chemistry in 1911. She died in 1934.
We adopted the daffodil emblem in 1986. The flower is an international symbol of hope and many people liken the daffodil to our Marie Curie Nurses who provide free care to people with terminal cancer and other illnesses in their own homes.
©2012 Marie Curie Cancer Care - Registered in England and Wales with Charity Reg No. 207994 and in Scotland with Charity Reg No. SC038731