International HPV Awareness Day is marked every year on 4 March.
For the Throat Cancer Foundation, it’s also a day to say something plainly: without our founder, Jamie Rae, thousands of boys in the UK would still be growing up without the protection they deserve.
Jamie didn’t just raise awareness. He helped force a national policy change — and then built practical support tools the NHS can use every day.
Jamie passed away on 5 May 2025, aged 60 — but the change he helped drive will protect future generations for decades.
A founder shaped by lived reality — and a public health blind spot
Jamie Rae was diagnosed and treated for an HPV-related throat cancer in 2010. That experience didn’t just change his health; it changed his purpose. In 2012 he founded the Throat Cancer Foundation after seeing, first-hand, how little clear, reliable information existed for patients and families dealing with HPV-driven throat cancers.
But there was a bigger issue sitting underneath all of it: prevention.
At the time, the UK’s HPV vaccination programme protected girls, primarily to prevent cervical cancer — while boys were left out, despite HPV also causing cancers that affect men, including some head and neck cancers.
Jamie saw that gap for what it was: unacceptable.
2018: the decision that changed who gets protected
In 2013, Jamie helped launch HPV Action UK, a coalition built specifically to push for gender-neutral HPV vaccination. The Throat Cancer Foundation was there at the start — helping fund, shape, and drive the campaign over five years as the coalition grew to more than 50 partner organisations.
The turning point came in July 2018.
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On 18 July 2018, the UK’s independent advisory body (JCVI) published conclusions supporting extending HPV vaccination to adolescent boys.
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On 24 July 2018, the UK Government announced that boys aged 12–13 in England would be offered the HPV vaccine, explicitly referencing protection from HPV-related diseases including oral/throat cancer.
- That same day the devolved nations responsible for their own public health policies announced the same decisions and HPV vaccination for all UK boys became available.
That announcement did not happen by accident. It happened because sustained, organised pressure made it harder to ignore the evidence — and harder to defend a programme that protected one sex and not the other.
And it translated into delivery: from September 2019, the HPV vaccine has been offered to Year 8 boys as well as girls.
Jamie’s achievement wasn’t a headline. It was a structural change — one that will keep paying back in prevented cancers for decades.
From policy win to NHS support: “HPV & Throat Cancer” guides
Winning a vaccination policy is prevention at population level. But Jamie also cared about what happens to people now — patients and families already facing HPV-related throat cancer, often shocked, confused, and carrying unnecessary stigma.
That’s why the Throat Cancer Foundation created two NHS-facing resources:
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an “HPV & Throat Cancer” guide for patients
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an “HPV & Throat Cancer” guide for professionals/clinicians
These guides were built from surveys with patients and healthcare professionals, responding to a clear message: people needed straightforward answers, and clinicians wanted better tools for explaining HPV-driven disease.
This is where our work directly supports the NHS: we produce and distribute information that helps clinical teams communicate better, earlier, and more humanely — at the point of diagnosis and throughout treatment.
And these aren’t “nice-to-have” leaflets. They’ve been formally endorsed by major UK professional bodies, including BAOMS and BAHNON, recognising the guides as clear, up-to-date resources for professionals, patients, and loved ones.
What HPV Awareness Day is for — and what you can do today
HPV is common. Most people will be exposed at some point. The vaccine is one of the cleanest prevention wins we have — but only if people actually take it up. The NHS continues to emphasise vaccination for 12–13-year-olds (Year 8), delivered through school-based teams.
So here’s the honest ask on HPV Awareness Day:
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If you’re a parent/carer of a Year 8 child: sign the consent form, ask questions, and don’t let “we’ll do it later” become “we missed it”.
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If you’re a young person who missed it: check eligibility for NHS catch-up vaccination.
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If you’re a clinician or work in health services: use and share the “HPV & Throat Cancer” guides — they exist to make conversations easier, clearer, and less frightening.
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If you support what Jamie started: help us keep producing and distributing these resources, so NHS teams don’t have to reinvent patient education from scratch.
Jamie Rae proved something important: policy can change when enough people refuse to accept preventable cancer as “just one of those things”.
Today, we honour that legacy by doing what he did best: pushing prevention forward — and backing the NHS with tools that genuinely help.
You and join and support our ‘Know the signs’ campaign to further protect people from throat cancers, including HPV related ones. https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/throatcancerfoundation
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