Stand Up To Cancer returns this December with new campaign by Channel 4 and Cancer Research UK to drive awareness of NHS cancer screening programmes and raise funds for groundbreaking cancer research

• Davina McCall, Adam Hills, Clare Balding, Meera Syal, Krishnan Guru-Murthy, Jessie J, Rosie Jones, Hugh Bonneville and Hannah Fry are amongst the celebrities supporting the campaign. 
• With at least 9 million people in the UK not up to date with their cancer screening*, Stand Up To Cancer is launching a nationwide Screening Checker on Friday 5th December, to allow the public to easily find out, for the first time, which NHS and PHA cancer screenings they are eligible for and get helpful advice on the entire screening process.
• Dermot Murnaghan to read the nightly Stand Up To Cancer news updates on Channel 4 in the week leading up to 12th December. 
• Three ambitious challenges to take over Christmas windows in some of the UK’s biggest shopping centres, culminating in a brilliant night of TV on Friday 12th December.
• New indie Bango Studios, led by BAFTA-winning producers Emily Hudd and Iain Wimbush, has been commissioned to produce Stand Up To Cancer 2025.

Friday 12th December will see Stand Up To Cancer 2025 reach its powerful climax with an unmissable night of television on Channel 4, fronted by Adam Hills, Davina McCall, and a host of special guests.

The live broadcast will feature special editions of much-loved Channel 4 shows, including Celebrity Gogglebox and The Last Leg, alongside moving stories, performances and fundraising moments as celebrities and the public unite to raise money for life-saving cancer research.

At the heart of the evening on Friday 12th December is a pioneering new live programme, Cancer Clinic: Live, presented by Davina McCall and produced by Bango Studios and HiddenLight. In a live broadcast direct from inside a special one-off cancer clinic at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge, we meet patients and their families whose cancer journeys have been followed for several weeks from diagnosis to results, as they continue through treatment.

For the first time on UK television, audiences will see clinical consultations with cancer specialists from Addenbrooke’s and Royal Papworth Hospitals unfold in real time. The aim is to demystify what happens inside a cancer clinic, tackle the fear that prevents many from seeking help and show the life-saving impact of early diagnosis.

The week-long campaign launches on Friday 5th December, leading up to the live event on Friday 12th December on Channel 4. Across the week a series of extraordinary celebrity challenges are set to take place around the UK. These will combine entertainment and emotion, raising funds for cancer research, driving awareness of the importance of early diagnosis and paying tribute to loved ones lost to cancer. Further details on the challenges will be announced in the coming weeks.

Broadcaster Dermot Murnaghan, who revealed his own cancer diagnosis earlier this year, will be supporting the campaign, delivering some of the nightly campaign bulletins airing on Channel 4 during the week leading up to the live show on 12th December. A passionate advocate for early detection, Dermot will update the public with the latest news from the campaign and at each of the challenges happening that day. 

At least 9 million people in the UK are not up to date with their cancer screening.* Screening is a way to detect cancer early when treatment is more likely to be successful, and in some cases can prevent the disease developing in the first place. But, at the moment, many people don’t take up their NHS invitations. Even working out whether you are eligible for cancer screenings can be complicated. To change that, the campaign is launching a simple online screening checker, designed to help people quickly work out if screening is for them. Launching on Friday 5th December, the tool features advice videos from well-known faces.

Davina McCall said: “I want to take the fear out of cancer screening and show everyone that they are not on their own in this. I’ve been part of Stand Up To Cancer UK since it started in 2012 and I knew for this year’s campaign I wanted to step out of the TV studio and speak to real people facing a cancer diagnosis. On the night of Stand Up To Cancer I will be with incredible teams of medical professionals to demystify what happens inside a cancer clinic. Cancer Clinic: Live is about showing the reality of the incredible care, science and humanity of a cancer diagnosis, and reminding people that early diagnosis gives you options and hope.”

Adam Hills said: “All week we will be asking famous faces to do some incredible and silly things all in the name of entertainment – to raise money for cancer research and to help remind everyone to use our online screening checker to bust myths around cancer screening. Join us on Channel 4 to pay tribute to those we have lost and hear about all the good news and incredible breakthroughs in cancer research that are changing the face of cancer treatment.”

Stand Up To Cancer UK is a joint national fundraising campaign from Cancer Research UK and Channel 4, bringing the nation together to accelerate life-saving research. Since its UK launch in 2012, the campaign has raised over £113 million, funding 73 clinical trials and projects involving over 13,000 cancer patients nationwide. These include research into robotic and laser-assisted cancer surgery, AI to help detect and treat cancers, and even lollipops that could help detect mouth cancer.

Stand Up To Cancer 2025 is commissioned for Channel 4 by Tom Beck, Head of Live Events and Commissioning Editor, Reality & Entertainment, Vivienne Molokwu, Senior Commissioning Editor, Reality & Entertainment, and Steve Handley, Head of Reality & Entertainment. It is produced by Bango Studios and the executive producers are Emily Hudd, Chris Sawyer, Richard Greenwood and Anna Blue. Strong Watch Studios have been commissioned to produce digital content. Executive producer for Strong Watch Studios is Adam Reeve. 

Cancer Clinic: Live is produced by Bango Studios and HiddenLight and the executive producers are Amy Flanagan, Emma Jay and Emily Hudd.

Stand Up To Cancer, Friday 12th December on Channel 4

To find out more about Stand Up To Cancer and how you can support, visit channel4.com/SU2C or su2c.org.uk or follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or TikTok. 

* Calculated by Cancer Research UK. Estimate based on: 

• The number of people not up to date with cervical screening (25–64-year-olds).  
• The estimated number of men not up to date with bowel cancer screening (50/55/60-74-year-olds, depending on UK country).  
• The estimated number of women older than the cervical screening eligibility not up to date with their bowel screening (aged 65-74).  
• Or, as an alternative scenario, women not up to date with breast cancer screening (aged 65-69) plus women not up to date with bowel screening (aged 70-74).  

We used data from the individual programmes to generate a minimum estimate of the number of people who are not up to date with cancer screening in the UK. Between the ages of 50-70, women are eligible for multiple screening programmes. Therefore, for these age groups only one programme was counted to avoid double counting an individual who might not attend both cervical and bowel screening, for example. 

Data on cervical screening coverage were available for all for UK nations. Coverage of bowel screening in men was estimated for England, Scotland and Northern Ireland using data on coverage by gender from Wales. The number of women aged 65-74 not up to date with bowel cancer screening across the 4 UK nations estimated from coverage by gender for Wales and uptake by age group for Scotland. Coverage of breast cancer screening was estimated using data on coverage by age from England were applied to coverage data for Wales and uptake data from Scotland and Northern Ireland. 

A report with further information on these calculations is available on request from Cancer Research UK. 

About Stand Up To Cancer (UK)   

Stand Up To Cancer is a joint national fundraising campaign from Cancer Research UK and Channel 4 that brings the UK together to speed up progress in life-saving cancer research   

• Supported by the Entertainment Industry Foundation (EIF) in the US and launched in the UK in 2012, Stand Up To Cancer funds translational research, turning academic breakthroughs in the labs into new treatments that make a real difference for people with cancer.   
• More than £113 million has been raised in the UK to date, funding 73 clinical trials and research projects involving more than 13,000 cancer patients  
• Research projects include developing pioneering technology using lasers and robots to improve cancer surgery, using AI to optimise radiotherapy treatment for rectal cancer, creating lollypops that could detect mouth cancer and much, much more. 
• Stars such as Naomi Campbell, Noel Gallagher, Tom Hardy, Gillian Anderson, Idris Elba, Andy Murray, James Corden, Martin Freeman, Jamie Oliver, Richard Ayoade, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Peter Crouch, Abbey Clancy, Danny Dyer, Louis Tomlinson, Lily James, Rosamund Pike, Sophie Turner, Stephen Graham, Toby Jones, Maya Jama, Joe Lycett and Roman Kemp are just some of the talent who have supported Stand Up To Cancer       

 To find out more about Stand Up To Cancer and how you can support, visit su2c.org.uk or channel4.com/SU2C or follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or TikTok