Current campaigns

Petition to inform parents about signs of childhood eye cancer

Last year the Childhood Eye Cancer Trust launched a campaign calling on the Dept of Health to make changes to the Personal Child Health Record (red book), the Birth to Five book and NHS online to highlight the signs and symptoms of retinoblastoma.

To date we have convinced the NHS Online team to publish information on childhood eye cancer on its popular health site, available here. We have also persuaded the committees responsible for the PCHR and for the Birth to Five content to consider our proposal for changes, which has been backed by the retinoblastoma teams at London and Birmingham as well as the National Blind Children's Society, Daisy's Eye Cancer Fund and the Childhood Cancer Parents Alliance among others. To date we are awaiting a final decision from both committees on our proposal.

Our campaigning continues however, as we gather support with an online petition and a call for action for Childhood Eye Cancer Trust members to lobby their MP for support. The more support we can gather for this vital campaign, the stronger our argument.

Now we need your help and urge you to contact your local MP to call for their support too. If enough MPs lobby the Department of Health they will be more inclined to sit up and take notice. We have a template letter you can use below if you would rather. Every MP is available to contact by email. You can find out who your MP is here. Click on your MP's name to access their contact details. Be sure to state your name and address in any correspondence you send.

The Childhood Eye Cancer Trust believes that what sets retinoblastoma aside from awareness needs of other cancers and rare diseases is that the signs of eye cancer can be very subtle and an affected child may show no obvious signs of illness otherwise - which is why is it so important that parents are informed of the signs and symptoms to enable them to act swiftly should they ever suspect these signs in their own child.

How you can help us make a difference:

Read and sign our petition - for full proposal click here. It takes just two minutes to register your support.

Share the petition with your friends and family. Send them the online link or print off a paper version and post back when completed. Click here for paper version.

Lobby your MP for support - we need political backing to make this work. Don't forget to include the full proposal, available to download above. For our template letter to approach your MP, click here

Tell the media you are supporting our campaign. If you need guidance on how to do this, contact our communications officer Julie Firth for more information. 0207 377 5578 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Together we can make a difference.

Campaign news

CHECT campaigners celebrate first victory

CHECT appeals Birth to Five decision

I Spy

Click here to download the I Spy Awareness Leaflet

The I Spy campaign has been our most dramatic yet – with a reaching question and a dramatic image feedback on our new poster design has been very positive. We were lucky enough to have support from Boomerang media who helped display bus stop sized posters in soft play houses around the country. This image went on to adorn our business cards, A4 and A3 posters and our A5 awareness leaflets.

We have received many calls for members, the public and professional requesting thousands of leaflets to help us spread the word and have so far distributed in excess of 7,000 leaflets. If you would like some to distribute in your community, please email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and we will be more than happy to post them to you.