Cancer Society – Annual Report 2019

Aim: To advance our goals in political decision-making using social advocacy. The goals cover a wide range of our areas of activity and relate to all stages of the cancer patient's path.

The CSF is one of Finland's largest public health and patient organisations. It has 18 member associations, of which 12 are regional cancer associations and six are national patient organisations.

The CSF maintains a national advice service where health care professionals answer questions about cancer by phone, email or online chat.

CSF health promotion is a value-based, goal-oriented activity for attaining human health and well-being and preventing cancer. The CSF conducts health promotion work in many fields.

In 2019, the CSF worked actively with the Nordic Cancer Union, the Association of European Cancer Leagues, and the Union for International Cancer Control.

The CSF offered a wide range of training courses to various professional groups and volunteers. Some of the training work is described in connection with the description of CSF activities.

The Finnish Cancer Registry is a statistical and epidemiological research institute maintained by the Cancer Society of Finland. The CSF also maintains the national cancer registry of the National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL), which includes mass screening registries for breast cancer and cervical cancer.

The Communications Unit promoted the implementation of the Cancer Society’s mission and key projects. The goal of CSF communications is that the information and services provided by the organisation can be found and used as easily as possible by patients, loved ones and all others with an interest in cancer.

Operating income and expenses remained primarily well budgeted, and liquidity remained at a reasonably good level. The result is a deficit of €133 141 (in 2018 there was a surplus of €12 227).

During 2019, the central office implemented four management support projects: 1) EFQM self-assessment, 2) mapping key risks, 3) project development, and 4) supervisor training.

At the end of 2019 the CSF had 113 employees (104 at the end of 2018). The number of permanent employees was 83 and the number of fixed-term employees was 30.

Ever since its laboratory activities were discontinued, the Cancer Society of Finland has accumulated large quantities of biological samples. The sample collections are the result of work carried out in laboratories in Helsinki, Kotka, Oulu and Tampere.