Jamie Rae was the founder of the Throat Cancer Foundation and the driving force behind its creation, growth and national impact. Before entering the charity sector, he was a successful entrepreneur who built a Scottish recycling business called Redeem into a global brand employing hundreds of people. After being diagnosed in 2010 with HPV-related oropharyngeal cancer, Jamie turned personal experience into action and founded the Throat Cancer Foundation in 2012 so that others facing throat cancer would have access to better information, stronger support and a more powerful voice.

What set Jamie apart was not simply that he founded a charity, but that he used it to fight for change. Shocked that boys were excluded from HPV vaccination despite the virus also causing cancers in men, he helped drive the campaign for gender-neutral protection. Through the Throat Cancer Foundation and the creation of HPV Action in 2013, Jamie played a pivotal role in the five-year effort that led to the UK Government announcing in July 2018 that boys would be included in the HPV vaccination programme. That achievement stands as one of the Foundation’s defining public-health victories and a legacy that will protect lives for generations.

Jamie combined entrepreneurial instinct with personal courage, public advocacy and a refusal to accept avoidable injustice. He helped build the Throat Cancer Foundation into a respected national charity focused on awareness, prevention, support and long-term change for patients and families affected by throat cancer. Jamie died on 5 May 2025, but his legacy lives on in the organisation he created, the people he helped and the national policy change he fought to achieve.