Breast Cancer Now vs Breast Cancer UK
In short: Breast Cancer Now funds research, runs support services such as a helpline and peer matching, and campaigns across the UK. Breast Cancer UK is a smaller charity working on prevention, including risks from chemicals in everyday products.
Last reviewed by CharityCompare editorial.
The names are similar but the work differs. Breast Cancer Now committed £16 million to research in its year to July 2025 and took 12,240 helpline calls. Breast Cancer UK works on preventing breast cancer through research, education and policy, spent £169,880 on research in its year to March 2025, and says it does not provide medical or pastoral support.
Breast Cancer Now vs Breast Cancer UK: key differences
| What to compare | BREAST CANCER NOW | BREAST CANCER UK LIMITED |
|---|---|---|
| Registered work and operating model | Breast cancer research, support services for people affected, and campaigning across the UK. | Primary prevention of breast cancer through research, public education and policy work, including on chemicals in everyday products. |
| What to consider | Its 5,263 people with primary and 1,063 with secondary breast cancer supported through tailored services are not defined further, and helpline calls and messages are contacts, not people. The £16 million is research committed in the year. | Its research is on a smaller scale, and its report gives both five and six current projects at different totals. Its education reach of over 20,000 people has no stated counting method. |
| Access and practical checks | Support services include its helpline, Someone Like Me volunteer matching and Moving Forward courses. It is registered in England and Wales, Scotland and the Isle of Man, and also operates in Northern Ireland. | It does not provide medical or pastoral support and signposts people to other organisations, including Breast Cancer Now. It gives practical advice on reducing risk through talks, online content and a podcast. |
| Sourced result or evidence gap | 12,240: Helpline calls taken, plus 3,905 messages answered. 1 August 2024 to 31 July 2025. Contacts, not unique people, and charity-reported; Someone Like Me arranged 2,267 volunteer matches. | £169,880: Spending on scientific research. Year to 31 March 2025. A financial input for prevention research, including new projects on bisphenol exposure and obesity and on phthalates and parabens in breast tissue; not a health outcome. |
What the latest filings show
Figures from the accounts held in our dated dataset; the live register may contain newer filings. Ratios can span multiple years, as labelled. Clarity scores use our methodology. Cost to raise £1 of donations is not part of the score; legacies make it lumpy, and it is withheld where trading costs would distort it (how it works).
| Metric | BREAST CANCER NOW | BREAST CANCER UK LIMITED |
|---|---|---|
| Latest accounts year in our snapshot | 2025 | 2025 |
| Financial snapshot refreshed | 2026-09-06 | 2026-09-06 |
| Ratio reporting window | 3-yr avg | 3-yr avg |
| Overall score | 78/100 (4★) | 79/100 (4★) |
| Accountability & Finance | 100/100 | 90/100 |
| Spend on charitable activities | 54% of expenditure | 75% of expenditure |
| Fundraising efficiency | £2.1 total income per £1 fundraising (2023–2025, disclosed years) | £5.9 total income per £1 fundraising (2023–2025, disclosed years) |
| Cost to raise £1 of donations | Not shown for 2025: trading income was 29% of donations | 19p per £1 (2025) · 18p over 2023–2025 |
| Latest income | £59m | £2.1m |
| Fundraising spend | 46% of expenditure | 25% of expenditure |
| Reserves | 8 months | 11 months |
| Accounts filing | On time | On time |
| Data confidence | high | high |
| Charity number | 1160558 | 1138866 |
BREAST CANCER NOW on the register · BREAST CANCER UK LIMITED on the register
Considering Breast Cancer Now
- You want to fund breast cancer research and support for people living with breast cancer.
- You want to back campaigning, such as its calls for breast screening awareness.
Considering Breast Cancer UK
- You want to fund work on preventing breast cancer, including environmental and chemical risk factors.
- You want to support policy work on chemical regulation.
Breast Cancer Now vs Breast Cancer UK: questions answered
Breast Cancer Now or Breast Cancer UK: which should I support?
There is no universal winner. Breast Cancer Now funds research and support for people affected by breast cancer; Breast Cancer UK focuses on prevention, including chemical and lifestyle risk factors. Choose the work you want to fund, then check the accounts period. A financial rating is not an impact assessment.
Are Breast Cancer Now and Breast Cancer UK the same charity?
No. Breast Cancer Now (charity 1160558) was formed in 2015 from the merger of Breakthrough Breast Cancer and Breast Cancer Campaign, and later acquired Breast Cancer Care. Breast Cancer UK (charity 1138866) is a separate, smaller charity focused on prevention.
Which charity offers support after a diagnosis?
Breast Cancer Now runs support services, including a helpline and Someone Like Me volunteer matching. Breast Cancer UK says it does not provide medical or pastoral support and signposts to other organisations, including Breast Cancer Now. Neither replaces advice from your own medical team.
How we score charities +
The Clarity Score is a 100-point rating from UK regulator filings (Charity Commission for England and Wales, OSCR and CCNI). Four pillars — Accountability & Transparency (40), Financial Health (30), Financial Efficiency (20), and Community Support (10) — each scored on a continuous scale, not pass/fail cutoffs. A statutory inquiry sets the score to 0 automatically.
Accountability & Transparency
Scored from filings
40 points — filing history (15), trustee oversight (15, scaling up to a board of three or more), declared policies (10).
Financial Health
Scored from filings
30 points — reserves (15, full marks 3–24 months, tapering on both sides), income stability (10), liabilities to assets (5, scaling down as debt rises).
Financial Efficiency
Scored from filings
20 points — program expense ratio and fundraising cost, each on a graduated scale (not a single cutoff). Kept at 20% of the total: financial-ratio scoring alone is not a reliable effectiveness signal (see "why not just an overhead ratio?" below).
Community Support
Scored from filings
10 points — volunteer-to-staff ratio from Charity Commission workforce data, scaling continuously up to a 2:1 ratio.
Overall score
Sum of all pillar points. Display stars use the same bands as the labels: 90–100 → 5★ Exceptional; 75–89 → 4★ Good; 60–74 → 3★ Needs improvement; 1–59 → 2★ Poor; 0 → not rated.