--- title: "Marie Curie vs Sue Ryder: Key Differences & Ratings" description: "Marie Curie vs Sue Ryder compared: UK-wide end-of-life care at home and in hospices vs hospice care in parts of England plus online bereavement support." source: https://www.charitycompare.org.uk/compare/marie-curie-vs-sue-ryder retrieved: 2026-10-23T13:11:42.200Z date_note: "Retrieval time is not the filing, register-extract or editorial-review date; cite those dates from the content." license: "Charity data © Crown copyright, Open Government Licence v3.0" --- [MC](https://www.charitycompare.org.uk/charity/marie-curie) [MARIE CURIE](https://www.charitycompare.org.uk/charity/marie-curie) 80/100 4★ Reg. 207994 compared with [SR](https://www.charitycompare.org.uk/charity/sue-ryder) [SUE RYDER](https://www.charitycompare.org.uk/charity/sue-ryder) 72/100 3★ Reg. 1052076 # Marie Curie vs Sue Ryder **In short:** Marie Curie gives free end-of-life care at home and in hospices across the UK. Sue Ryder gives palliative care in parts of England and online bereavement support UK-wide, after leaving neurological care. Last reviewed 23 October 2026 by CharityCompare editorial. Both provide free end-of-life care, but report it differently. Marie Curie says it supported 42,271 people in 2024/25, 31,790 of them at home, with the NHS funding 47% of its home-care costs. Sue Ryder reports more than 657,000 hours of care in 2025/26 but no count of people. Hours and people are different measures, from different years. ## Marie Curie vs Sue Ryder: key differences | What to compare | MARIE CURIE | SUE RYDER | | --- | --- | --- | | Registered work and operating model | End-of-life care at home and in hospices for any terminal illness, plus a support line, research and campaigning. | Palliative and end-of-life care in parts of England, with grief support online across the UK. | | What to consider | Its report gives two hospice figures, 7,978 people supported and 1,838 people cared for, without explaining the difference. Its Hampstead hospice is closed to inpatients after RAAC concrete was found, and 23 home-care services closed in 2024/25 while 20 opened. | It counts hours, calls, visits and sessions rather than people, and two pages of its report give slightly different hours totals. It has divested its neurological care, the last centre in April 2025, and describes its bereavement services as currently unfunded. | | Access and practical checks | Ask your district nurse, GP or hospital team about getting a Marie Curie Nurse in your area, or contact its Support Line. It says care is free to patients and their families. | You can refer yourself to its hospice services or be referred by family or a healthcare professional. It says care is free to patients and families, and its bereavement services are open to adults across the UK. | | Sourced result or evidence gap | 42,271: People given end-of-life care and support. Year to 31 March 2025, UK. A charity-reported output, including 31,790 people cared for at home. The NHS funded 47% of home-care costs and 34% of hospice costs that year. | Over 657,000: Hours of palliative and end-of-life care. Year to 31 March 2026. A charity-reported output in hours, not people; its welcome letter says over 655,000. It also reports 132,000 telephone calls, over 58,000 face-to-face visits and 5,635 online bereavement counselling sessions. | ## 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](https://www.charitycompare.org.uk/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](https://www.charitycompare.org.uk/methodology#cost-to-raise)). | Metric | MARIE CURIE | SUE RYDER | | --- | --- | --- | | 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 | 80/100 (4★) | 72/100 (3★) | | Accountability & Finance | 100/100 | 100/100 | | Spend on charitable activities | 71% of expenditure | 48% of expenditure | | Fundraising efficiency | £3.2 total income per £1 fundraising (2023–2025, disclosed years) | £1.8 total income per £1 fundraising (2023–2025, disclosed years) | | Cost to raise £1 of donations | Not shown for 2025: trading income was 16% of donations | Not shown for 2025: trading income was 333% of donations | | Latest income | £181m | £106m | | Fundraising spend | 29% of expenditure | 52% of expenditure | | Reserves | 5 months | 3 months | | Accounts filing | On time | On time | | Data confidence | high | high | | Charity number | 207994 | 1052076 | [MARIE CURIE on the register](https://register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/charity-details/?regId=207994&subId=0) · [SUE RYDER on the register](https://register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/charity-details/?regId=1052076&subId=0) ## Considering Marie Curie - You want to fund end-of-life nursing at home or hospice care in any UK nation, for any terminal illness. - You want to help fill the gap: Marie Curie says fundraised income covers most of the cost of its care. [Full profile →](https://www.charitycompare.org.uk/charity/marie-curie) ## Considering Sue Ryder - You want to support hospice and community care around its bases, such as Reading, Cheltenham, Peterborough, Leeds and Keighley. - You want to fund grief support, including free online bereavement counselling, which it describes as currently unfunded. [Full profile →](https://www.charitycompare.org.uk/charity/sue-ryder) ## Marie Curie vs Sue Ryder: questions answered ### Marie Curie or Sue Ryder: which should I support? There is no universal winner. Marie Curie provides end-of-life care at home and in hospices across the UK; Sue Ryder provides palliative care around its English bases and bereavement support across the UK. Choose by area and type of care, then check the accounts period. A financial rating is not an impact assessment. ### Is care from Marie Curie and Sue Ryder free? Both say so. Marie Curie says its care is always free of charge to the people it looks after and their families; Sue Ryder says its expert care is free of charge to patients and their families. Both rely partly on NHS funding, and Marie Curie says commissioners’ funding decisions have led some of its services to be withdrawn. ### Does Sue Ryder still run neurological care? No. Its 2025/26 report says it decided in 2022 to focus on end-of-life and bereavement support and divest its neurological services. The English services were divested in 2023/24, and the remaining Scottish service transferred to Care Concern Group in April 2025. 100 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. [Full methodology →](https://www.charitycompare.org.uk/methodology) 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. [Compare these charities side-by-side](https://www.charitycompare.org.uk/compare-charities?ids=marie-curie,sue-ryder) [Back to compare](https://www.charitycompare.org.uk/compare-charities) **Information only** — not donation advice. We do not tell you where to give. Sources: [Marie Curie: Registered activities, identity and accounts](https://register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/charity-details/?regId=207994&subId=0), [Marie Curie: Annual Report and Accounts 2024/25](https://www.mariecurie.org.uk/document/annual-report-and-accounts-2024-2025), [Marie Curie: Hospice Care at Home and how to get a Marie Curie Nurse](https://www.mariecurie.org.uk/services/hospice-care-at-home/what-marie-curie-nurses-do), [Marie Curie: Services in London (Hampstead hospice status)](https://www.mariecurie.org.uk/services/london), [Sue Ryder: Registered activities, identity and accounts](https://register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/charity-details/?regId=1052076&subId=0), [Sue Ryder: Trustees’ Annual Report and Accounts 2025–26](https://www.sueryder.org/about-us/how-we-make-an-impact/annual-report-and-accounts/), [Sue Ryder: Hospice services FAQs (referral and cost)](https://www.sueryder.org/end-of-life-care/our-hospices-and-care-centres/hospice-services-faqs/). See also [how we score](https://www.charitycompare.org.uk/compare-charities#how-we-score).