ABOUT
Established in 2019 by award-winning community champion Leanne Pero after her own battle with breast cancer at just 30 years old. The Leanne Pero Foundation aims to address the gaps in care for POC with cancer. After her own battle with the disease, Leanne realised that mainstream cancer services were not inclusive enough and did not provide adequate support tailored to the black and ethnic community. Similarly, the community were not engaging with medical services to gather the much-needed data to make the changes.
WHY OUR WORK IS VITAL
The bottom line is that cancer in the black community is on the rise and people of colour are dying disproportionately from treatable cancers. People of colour are more likely to be diagnosed with particular cancers such as Breast, Gastric and Prostate. Despite these alarming facts, routine cancer screening and cancer vaccinations remain far lower within the communities of POC, than that of other groups. Regrettably, mortality rates for POC cancer patients are far higher than patients from white backgrounds. This is driven by many factors such as late diagnosis, refusing of treatment, not understanding the symptoms and a culture of fear.
OUR CORE PRINCIPLES
LISTEN
As a user led charity it is important for us to actively listen to our service users as it is their voices that shape everything we do. We provide safe spaces for people to share their personal experiences and ensure that no one has to feel alone or suffer in silence. Everyone’s voice matters.
EMPOWER
Our organisation is built around empowerment, we believe empowered people, empower people. Therefore, all our activities provide the steppingstones for our service users to be involved, upskill, lead and become peer-to-peer advocates in their own right.
AWARENESS
Or main aim as an organisation is to raise the awareness of issues that specifically impact and marginalise black and ethnic communities when it comes to cancer care within the UK. We ensure that our activities are impactful, our message is clear, and our work is far reaching.
NURTURE
We care about our service users therefore providing a service that is empathetic, supportive, and friendly is incredibly important to us. We are immensely proud of our humble beginnings that have enabled us to build strong connections and bring a personal feel to our projects. We are a family.
NAVIGATE
We cannot do this work alone therefore we have built a strong network of partners and patrons to enable us to signpost our service users to other provisions that can offer support and assistance, dependant on their needs. Everyone’s journey is important to us, we are here to make things easier.
EDUCATE
All our work involves educating others whether it be external providers, other charities, health services, brands and the public. We are passionate about ensuring the right people know and understand what the needs are of communities of POC.