Following a series of high profile scandals, confidence and trust in the UK’s charity sector recently hit an all time low. You might think that would be a wake up call to the sector but at Cancer Research UK the intention appears to be one of deliberately further undermining that public trust and confidence.

Over the last few years there has been a series of scandals among high profile charities, scandals which have left the British public wondering which, if any, charities they can trust with their hard earned money.

From the collapse of Kids Company to food for sex scandals involving Oxfam, Save The Children, the Red Cross and more, to sexual harassment at the Presidents Club, and to wallet busting executive pay packages; barely a month goes by without another charity bringing the ethics of the whole sector into question.

Surely the wise charity would ensure that ethics and integrity were set to high standards and are well managed given this environment? Surely honesty and transparency would be vital? And what of habits of lying by omission, misrepresenting facts, and sheer bare-faced hypocrisy?

You would think so but, as Race 4 Truth has evidenced time and time again, at Cancer Research UK all of these acts are normal practice, part of the culture of the organisation.

And in not addressing that very poor culture, Cancer Research UK risk not only undermining confidence in themselves, but of further eroding public trust and confidence in the whole sector.

The public should be able to expect the very highest ethics, morals and integrity from charities; to be able to trust that the organisations they entrust with their money can be trusted and believed.

If charities like Cancer Research UK cannot get their house in order to provide this then the Charities Commission and government should be playing a far more proactive role in setting (high) standards and ensuring those (high) standards are complied with.

If they do not then the damage to the sector could spread far wider than solely those charities, like Cancer research UK, who display such poor ethics and low integrity, and end up damaging the innocent along with the guilty.

In the Race 4 Truth, Cancer Research UK are lagging behind.