Today, the 5th of May 2026 the first anniversary of Jamie Rae’s death, the Throat Cancer Foundation remembers its founder, his mission, and the work he set in motion.
For those who knew Jamie, this is not simply a date in the calendar. It is a moment to pause, to remember, and to recognise the scale of what one determined person set in motion after his own life was changed by throat cancer.
Jamie founded the Throat Cancer Foundation in 2012 following his own diagnosis with HPV-related throat cancer. From his own painful experience, he understood that throat cancer was not simply a medical condition to be treated. It could change almost every part of a person’s life — their voice, confidence, relationships, work, eating, speaking and sense of identity. That experience shaped his determination to make sure others had clearer information, better understanding and a stronger chance of prevention or earlier diagnosis.
That experience shaped everything he went on to build. Jamie understood that patients and families often needed clearer information at the very point when they were frightened, overwhelmed and trying to make sense of a diagnosis. He also understood that many people had never been told about HPV, its link to throat cancer, or the ways in which vaccination and prevention could change the future for others.
The Throat Cancer Foundation was never intended to be a passive awareness charity. Jamie built it because he wanted change. He wanted people to understand the link between HPV and throat cancer. He wanted patients and families to have honest, accessible information when they needed it most. He wanted healthcare professionals to have better resources to support difficult conversations with patients. Above all, he wanted prevention to be taken seriously.
One of Jamie’s most significant achievements was his work to help secure HPV vaccination for boys in the UK. At the time, girls were offered the vaccine, but boys were not. Jamie understood the unfairness and the public health failure in that position. HPV does not only affect women. It also causes cancers in men, including throat cancer. For Jamie, leaving boys out of the vaccination programme was not just a policy gap; it was a criminal failure to protect future generations.
Rather than simply complain about that gap, Jamie acted. He helped establish and finance HPV Action, a coalition of organisations campaigning for gender-neutral HPV vaccination. He pushed, lobbied, argued and refused to let the issue disappear. The Throat Cancer Foundation was alone in beginning legal action to pursue and challenge the Government’s position and increase pressure for change. In 2018, the UK finally announced that boys would also be offered the HPV vaccine.
That decision will protect many young people from HPV-related cancers in the years ahead. It stands as one of Jamie’s greatest legacies, not because it was easy, but because it was not. It took persistence, pressure and a refusal to accept that preventable cancers should simply be allowed to happen.
But Jamie’s legacy is not only found in national public health policy. It is also found in the thousands of patients, families and clinicians who have used the Throat Cancer Foundation’s information guides. It is found in NHS ENT departments where our resources help explain HPV-related throat cancer more clearly. It is found in the people who read about symptoms and decide to get checked. It is found in conversations that happen earlier, with less shame, less confusion and more understanding.
Jamie lived for many years with the consequences of throat cancer. He knew what treatment could take from a person, even when it saved their life. That gave his work a depth and urgency that could not be manufactured. He did not speak from theory. He spoke from experience, and that experience gave the Foundation its edge, its purpose and its determination.
Today, the Throat Cancer Foundation continues to build on Jamie’s vision. Our focus remains clear: prevention where we can, early diagnosis where we can’t. That means continuing to raise awareness of the signs and symptoms of throat cancer. It means helping people understand the risks linked to HPV, smoking, alcohol and lifestyle. It means supporting better conversations between patients and healthcare professionals. It means getting clear, practical information into hospitals, GP surgeries, pharmacies, community venues and the hands of the people who need it.
It also means being honest about the disease Jamie fought so hard to change. Throat cancer is not rare enough to ignore. It is not simple. It is not always linked to the old stereotypes people still carry about it being a ‘smoker and drinkers’ cancer. For too many people, diagnosis still comes later than it should, and too many patients still begin that journey without the clear information and support they deserve.
Jamie understood that silence, stigma and poor information cost lives. He challenged all three. He saw people being diagnosed without enough information. He saw boys being left out of a vaccination programme that could protect them. He saw preventable disease being treated as inevitable, and he decided to do something about it.
One year on from his death, we remember Jamie not only with sadness, but with responsibility. His work did not end on 5th May 2025. It became ours to carry forward.
Jamie Rae’s legacy is not only that he founded a charity. It is that he turned his own experience of throat cancer into work that continues to protect, inform and support others. On this first anniversary, we remember him with gratitude, respect and determination.
To help continue the work Jamie began, please consider supporting the Throat Cancer Foundation’s Know the Signs campaign. Your donation helps us put clear, practical information about throat cancer symptoms, prevention and early diagnosis into the hands of more people, more communities and more NHS settings across the UK. Jamie built this charity because he believed people deserved better information, earlier warnings and a stronger chance of acting before it was too late. You can help carry that work forward here: https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/throatcancerfoundation
Thank you.
