Published: 11 December 2025

We're pleased to announce that Yorkshire Cancer Research is the winner of the Aisling Burnand Award 2025!  

The set of entries was exceptionally strong this year, showcasing many impressive examples of joint working between AMRC members.

Yorkshire Cancer Research’s winning entry, announced at our Annual General Meeting (AGM), was based on a group they convened, involving seven AMRC charities. The group worked together to produce a joint statement which calls for more research into whether a cancer drug called a PARP inhibitor – already used to treat cancer - could one day be used to prevent cancer in people at high-risk.

The partnership tackled a complex area of prevention, which is one of the Government’s areas of health focus and which AMRC published a report on earlier this year. The entry stood out for how the collaboration recognised and valued different contributions from charities of different sizes and with different focus areas. It also effectively demonstrated the importance of joining up on a complex issue to identify best practice and to address challenges in partnership. The fact that all seven contributors were AMRC charities also clearly demonstrates the combined power of our members. Congratulations to all the charities involved in this brilliant collaboration.  

To continue building on the strength of our membership network, those at the AGM confirmed that Introductory members will now have up to five years to progress to Full membership, with further extensions allowed in exceptional circumstances. This will allow us to provide the best support to our increasing number of Introductory members.

The AGM also provided an opportunity to welcome four new AMRC trustees. Beth Thompson, Executive Director, Policy & Partnerships, will be joining as our new nominated trustee for Wellcome; and Claire Pimm, Chief Communications Officer at LifeArc, will be our Supporter trustee. We have two new co-opted trustees as well: Professor Nick Lemoine, Director of Strategic Development and National Medical Director at NIHR; and Dr Sarah Main, Vice President, Global Strategic Networks at Elsevier. As well as saying welcome, we took time to say a big thank you and farewell to our outgoing trustees – Alyson Fox, Doug Brown and Jonathan Grant.

Finally, we were delighted to reappoint Adam Cobham and Daniel Pavin, as well as our wonderful Chair, Dr Louise Wood, who has agreed to stay on for another three years.  

If you have any questions or would like to know more about any of these announcements, please get in touch with our team at [email protected].