Action Medical Research is the UK’s most forward thinking charity. We believe diseases and disabilities can be beaten, and through our medical research we are creating a healthier future for everyone.

Action Medical Research is unique. Other medical charities have a single focus — either on a particular disease, or age group, or a specific hospital. Action Medical Research is looking for answers to a wide range of diseases and conditions that affect young and old. We have the broadest research remit of any medical charity which relies on voluntary support. Action Medical Research is creating a healthier future for everyone, and we do this by selecting the best research projects in areas where we are most likely to find cures or treatments. Our work is driven by medical need, and is independent of political or commercial influence.

Our Charity is forward thinking in many ways:

• We are preventative — we believe that prevention is the most effective form of medicine, and much of our work aims to treat the causes rather than just the symptoms of disease and disability;

• We are proactive — we believe that actions speak louder than words, and that taking the initiative is the key to our success. Our supporters are all self-starters who are determined to make a difference;

• We are independent — we make truly objective choices about the work we fund because we are driven by medical need and not influenced by politics or swayed by the pressure to be profitable.

Advances in medical science are the result of years of dedicated, painstaking research by some of the brightest minds in the country. The research work we fund today is helping discover the cures and treatments of tomorrow. Piece by piece, we are putting together the building blocks of knowledge that will help us understand why and how diseases and disabilities happen, and what can be done to treat and prevent them. Sometimes this takes time, possibly many years. That is why our vital work is truly forward thinking — we are taking action today in the knowledge that we are creating a healthier future.

Our ambitious vision is to create a future without disease and disability. We believe diseases and disabilities can be beaten with medical research. Why? Because we have been making medical breakthroughs for over 50 years - including helping develop the polio vaccine in the UK, ultrasound scanning in pregnancy and the hip replacement operation — saving and improving countless lives.

Thank you to everyone who supports Action Medical Research. Your support is so important in making the medical breakthroughs of tomorrow.