PR and Communications Manager

Leukaemia UK – Our Charity

We are a ‘small but mighty’ charity with one big ambition: to stop leukaemia devastating lives. Over the next 10 years we want to help save and improve the lives of more people with leukaemia through funding life-changing research and campaigning for change.

Despite progress in recent decades, someone in the UK is diagnosed with a blood cancer every 16 minutes and for some types of leukaemia survival rates are among the worst of any cancer.  And the physical and psychological impact can be lifelong. 

Over the next 5 years we plan to increase our investment into ground-breaking world class research and policy development focused on improving access to kinder, more effective diagnosis, treatment and care for leukaemia and other blood cancers. To do this, we are in a period of significant growth, investing strategically to grow our income, profile, influence, engagement and impact.

Following the launch of Leukaemia UK’s new brand in 2022, and at a crucial mid-way point in our strategy, we are seeking a dedicated and creative PR & Communications Manager with a passion for storytelling, to help continue to raise the profile of Leukaemia UK and communicate the need and impact of its work to key audiences.

Team

We are a close-knit team who are all passionate about Leukaemia UK and putting those affected by the disease at the heart of everything we do.  We are all focused on “keeping it real” with pragmatic, practical solutions, as well as ensuring that our charity gets the funding it needs to continue to help those diagnosed with leukaemia and other blood cancers.

From us you can expect fun and creativity, as well as great challenge and support. We may not be about the corporate life here, but we are all about delivering exceptional expertise and making a real change to people’s lives.

As part of a small comms team, this role offers the chance to make a real difference to the charity and strike a balance between leading on key campaigns and strategy development, as well as getting stuck in with projects in a more ‘hands on’ delivery capacity.

Leukaemia UK and You 

As PR & Communications Manager you will work with the job-share Directors of Communications to manage the charity’s PR, brand communications and celebrity engagement, helping to drive significant growth in awareness amongst our key audiences by delivering engaging stories and content.   

We are looking for a talented, creative and results driven PR & comms expert, passionate about story-telling and capable of translating complex research, health and policy information into stand-out proactive communications campaigns.

You will be a self-starter, who enjoys working independently and is always hungry for a story. You will be used to building strong relationships with journalists, agents and case studies, and keeping on top of the news agenda to spot and maximise opportunities for the charity to engage with it.

This role requires managing several functions and external partners, whilst also delivering the drumbeat of reactive and proactive coverage needed to build awareness of Leukaemia UK and the work we do.  It also involves line management responsibility for our PR & Celebrity officer and freelance part-time case study support.

This is a great role for someone looking to have real autonomy in their work and get involved in a range of communications disciplines, helping to drive us forward and make an impact for all those affected by leukaemia.

Skills and Experience

• Experience working in a busy press office / comms function which has raised the profile and awareness of an organisation
• Experience of identifying newsworthy stories and angles, often from complex information or data. Health and science communications and/or health policy experience desirable but not essential
• Experience of working with celebrities in a PR / communications context 
• Experience of issues and crisis communications management
• Experience of working with case studies and the sensitivity that goes along with this
• Experience of brand management highly desirable
• Some line management experience

 Working Arrangements

• Hours and place of work: Full time hours are 37.5 Monday to Friday.
• Our hybrid working policy is for all staff to work from our central London office at least twice per month – i.e, 2 working days. 
• Salary range £40,000 - £48,000 (FTE)  
• We are proud of our benefits – see a summary on our website Work with us - Leukaemia UK 

Applications

If you feel you have the passion for our work and the right mix of skills, energy, and flair to embrace this broad and challenging role and enable our strategy to fly, then we would love you to apply.

• First interviews will be held via Teams on Wednesday 6th November 2024  
• Second interviews will be face to face in our London Offices – at 26 Great Queen St, London WC2B 5Bl on Wednesday 13th November 2024

To minimise unconscious bias, we use anonymous recruitment and are unable to consider direct applications. Please apply via the CharityJob website with your CV and covering letter

Closing Date: 12 noon Friday 18th October 2024

We look forward to hearing from you! 

Lizzie Afonso & Anna Wilson

Directors of Communications