Clinical Trials and Research Nurses: The Driving Force Behind Cure Leukaemia

Blood cancer is one of the UK's deadliest cancers, yet it receives far less public attention than many others. More than 40,000 people are diagnosed with blood cancer in the UK every year, and more than 15,000 die from it, according to Blood Cancer UK. Progress against the disease depends heavily on clinical trials, and many of those trials depend on charitable funding. Where that funding goes may matter as much as how much is raised.

James McLaughlin, chief executive of Cure Leukaemia, has spent more than a decade focused on that question. The UK charity is dedicated solely to funding blood cancer research, including clinical trials and the specialist research nurses who deliver them. Rather than providing support services, it funds a network of hospitals that give patients access to new treatments.

Its model reflects how much UK medical progress relies on charities. The Association of Medical Research Charities found that medical research charities invested £2.1 billion in UK medical research in 2025 and supported 26% of the country's non-commercial clinical research. Yet much public giving flows to the largest, best-known charities. Smaller, research-focused charities may struggle to compete for attention, even when their work is concentrated where it is most needed.

McLaughlin did not come from medicine or the charity sector. After many years in the sport industry, in 2006 he worked for Edgbaston cricket ground, in Birmingham, where he met Cure Leukaemia co-founder Professor Charlie Craddock CBE. After drawing parallels with cricket on the world stage, both McLaughlin and Craddock recognized the need for blood cancer to have similar global impact. This is where their relationship and the future of Cure Leukaemia were created, to establish international and domestic partnerships to fund research and trials that are saving lives among the blood cancer community today.

McLaughlin credits his commercial background with shaping how he approached the role. He notes that the charity was once close to financial collapse. That experience, he says, made sustainable funding a priority. "Sport teaches you that you can be top of the league one year and bottom the next," he adds. "A charity needs to be built to last."

One of the charity's central decisions has been to fund the people behind clinical trials. Cure Leukaemia pays for specialist research nurses and supports a network of 29 blood cancer centers delivering trials across the UK. McLaughlin believes this infrastructure is often overlooked by donors, even though trials depend on trained staff to recruit patients and gather results. "Research nurses are the people who make trials happen," he says. "Without them, promising treatments take far longer to reach patients."

McLaughlin has also taken on fundraising personally. Between 2020 and 2025, his annual running challenge took him to the centers in the charity's trial networks, covering more than 1,000 miles and raising over £300,000. According to the charity, the challenge helped him build connections with patients and clinicians. "Meeting the patients and clinicians we fund keeps our purpose clear," he adds.

The charity's two flagship fundraisers, The Tour21 and The Route, give amateur cyclists the chance to ride the entire route of the Tour de France, a week before the professionals for both men and women. McLaughlin sees businesses as central to the charity's future, and Cure Leukaemia has named trials after the companies that funded them. The charity says it is especially keen to find partners to grow both events.

The charity is also looking at quality of life, not only survival. A trial due to begin next year will test a tablet version of an existing chemotherapy treatment, which could allow some patients to be treated at home rather than in hospital.

In December, co-founder of Cure Leukemia Professor Charlie Craddock, along with other leading hematologists from the UK, will attend the American Society of Hematology. The biggest conference in the world. The UK continues to be at the forefront of clinical trials of blood cancer with global networks such as TAP and IMPACT. "Every trial tells us something new, and that knowledge is how progress is made," he says.

For McLaughlin, the future of finding a cure for blood cancer lies in pioneering clinical trials, groundbreaking research, and the dedicated research nurses who make them possible. By investing in research and expanding access to innovative, globally significant clinical trials, this will accelerate the development of new treatments, improve patient outcomes, and ultimately save more lives. He believes that, by leading the way with global networks, clinical trials, and research nurses, they offer hope for a future where blood cancer is no longer a life-threatening diagnosis but a curable disease.