The Black Women Rising cancer support project was set up in 2017 by award-winning community champion Leanne Pero after she struggled with the aftermath of her own battle with breast cancer at just 30 years old.

In her quest to find the right services to aid her, Leanne soon realised that the NHS lacked cancer support packages for BAME cancer patients. Further investigation into the visibility of BAME cancer patients in the UK started to unravel that in most instances, the cancer stories of her community were being excluded from the UK’s mainstream media outlets, magazines, daily tabloids and more damagingly from reputable annual cancer campaigns by brands and charities failing miserably at diversifying their campaigns.

This further fuelled the false narrative amongst the BAME Community that cancer is not a “black disease”.

As well as these generic injustices, the unhelpful myths and taboos surrounding cancer within the BAME community had ultimately stopped people from speaking out about their ordeals, leading to a lack of awareness and education within BAME households around cancer, its signs and symptoms. This ultimately led to the devastating outcomes of late-stage diagnoses and higher mortality rates in some cancers than their white counterparts.