Entrepreneur
Cancer care: Why women deserve better
The disruption to cancer services have stretched health systems and left thousands of women with no specialist care. Femtech World reports.
The pandemic has caused significant disruptions and has deepened health inequalities.
According to a recent BMJ report, Covid has had a drastic effect on the entire cancer continuum through interruption, delays, and altered modes of screening, diagnosis, and treatment as well as follow-up and palliative care.
Of the four million people living with cancer in the UK, 36 per cent of them are of working age. Two thirds of those are women.
As they are typically the primary carer for children and elderly relatives, the big C is even more likely to affect them disproportionately.
“Not only have you got more women impacted by cancer, but the impact of their cancer has a greater effect on a larger number of people,” says Kelly McCabe, co-founder and CEO of the cancer support platform Perci Health.
Although women cancer survivors have both psychological and physiological needs, these are often neglected.
After cancer treatment, women are offered follow-up appointments every few months, but this is not enough, says McCabe.
Kelly McCabe, Perci Health co-founder
“People don’t think about the huge lasting impact that cancer has on someone’s life. There’s a real gap across the board in both the private and the public sector for when treatment ends,” she explains.
“Breast cancer – currently the most common type of cancer in the UK – is often described as a good one to have. But in reality many women with breast cancer have to go through every single treatment modality available – chemotherapy, radiotherapy, surgery, and hormone therapy – which can hugely impact their lives.”
As a registered oncology dietitian, McCabe has seen that cancer survivors are not offered enough support.
“I’ve realised that the people who are more likely to be able to help with these ongoing questions and rehabilitation needs aren’t actually doctors,” she says. “They tend to be nurses, dieticians, psychologists, physios and the other professionals who specialise in various areas and have the time to talk to patients.
“So, when we launched Perci, we wanted to bring together the whole team of people that [a cancer survivor] might need onto one digital platform.”
Perci Health is the first online platform that gives people access to support from multidisciplinary cancer teams focused holistically on recovery from a physical, mental, social and emotional point of view.
Although public healthcare systems offer little long-term support, McCabe says that is something essential for improving health outcomes and lowering the risk of recurrent cancer.
“Our healthcare system is not set up to deliver personalised patient-centred care. We talk about doing it, but we don’t do it very well,” she says.
“Currently, there’s very little data in cancer survivors, focusing on what happens in those five to 10 years after treatment, but that doesn’t mean the needs aren’t there.
“The data shows that for 70 per cent of people cancer will have an impact on their sexual function, but for women it remains an area completely neglected after treatment. Induced menopause is another issue for those who had hormonal breast cancer treatments, but there are very few cancer-trained menopause specialists out there.”
McCabe thinks that an over-reliance on charities and support organisations has led to a lack of support within the public health system.
“Historically, holistic wraparound cancer support has been delegated to charities,” she explains. “But although charities have an important role, they cannot afford to provide personalised one-to-one support to every person with cancer in the UK and they’re not able to provide clinical support.
“We’ve relied on a one-size-fits-all approach and at the end of your cancer treatment, the follow-up care is based on a risk assessment – to determine whether you are at high, moderate or low risk. But that’s as personalised as it gets.
“However, in order to improve [long-term] support, we need a holistic needs assessment, which should happen at the beginning of treatment, regularly throughout your treatment and at the end of your treatment.
“Sometimes the needs assessment happens, but the problems aren’t addressed. It feels like people are trying, but the attempts they are making are not as effective as they as they need to be.”
Perci received overwhelmingly positive feedback. The founder hopes that the platform will be able to help over 200,000 people affected by cancer in the next five years, becoming the largest cancer support platform.
“We’ve helped thousands of people already and we’re starting to sign more and more partnerships with hospital providers and charities,” she says.
“Our goal is to help more cancer survivors and analyse the data around the problems they are experiencing and the interventions they need.
“We are trying to champion the fact that cancer needs to be managed as a chronic condition. It’s not yet, but if we can achieve our goal, we can really start to change the way it is managed.”
By Chaitra Vedullapalli, founder and president, Women in Cloud
Today’s leaders are carrying more than responsibilities.
They are carrying caregiving roles, financial pressures, legal complexities, and the quiet emotional weight of sustaining performance in unpredictable times.
And yet, most leadership forums still focus on productivity, growth, and scale, rarely addressing the human systems that enable sustained leadership.
At Women in Cloud, we believe the next generation of leadership will not be defined by endurance alone, but by discipline, preparation, and self-respect.
That is why we are proud to announce the #WICxWellness Summit 2026: The Disciplined Advantage.
This is a wellness summit focused on leadership preparedness.
Why This Summit Matters Now
Across our global community, a clear pattern has emerged.
- More professionals and executives are quietly navigating:
- Life-threatening health crises, personally or within their families
- Financial stress caused by medical, caregiving, or business shocks
- Legal and healthcare decisions with long-term consequences
- Career interruptions due to caregiving responsibilities
- Chronic exhaustion, grief, and emotional isolation
These experiences are widespread, yet rarely discussed in executive settings.
#WICxWellness 2026 brings these realities into the open with compassion, clarity, and practical guidance, so leaders can prepare, adapt, and continue forward without breaking.
This is wellness as a leadership discipline.
What We Will Explore
This year’s summit is designed to provide grounded, immediately applicable insights for founders, executives, and senior leaders.
Executive Function Under Chronic Stress
Keynote with Jennifer Brown
Focus Areas:
- Understand how chronic stress alters judgment, focus, and emotional regulation
- Identify early warning signs of cognitive overload in leadership roles
- Adaptability as a Cognitive Anchor: Navigating rapid change without compromising decision-making.
- Resilience Through Connection: Building human-centric teams to mitigate the stress of uncertainty.
- Navigating Change with Emotional Intelligence: Regulating stress responses to maintain clarity and empathy.
- Systemic Agility in High-Pressure Environments: Creating foundations of psychological safety that protect organizational function
Labs That Matter (And What to Do With Them)
Fireside Chat with Chelsey Galipeau and Chaitra Vedullapalli
Focus Areas:
- Which health tests are worth the time and investment
- Interpreting results without panic
- Preventive strategies for executive longevity
- Avoiding unnecessary medical spending
Caretaking Without Collapse
Panel With Karen Fassio, Anca Platon Trifan, Scilla Andreen, Clara Schroeder, Sheena Yap Chan
Focus Areas:
- Managing family and professional demands without burnout
- Setting humane boundaries
- Building sustainable support systems
- Ending silent sacrifice in leadership
Food as a Stability System (Not a Diet)
Fireside Chat with Nancy Watt and Meagan T. Copelin
Focus Areas:
- Nutrition for sustained energy and clarity
- Blood sugar and decision-making
- Realistic eating during travel and stress
- Food as operational resilience
Autoimmunity, Hormones & Cardiac Risk in Real Life
Fireside Chat with Dr. Linda Bing
Focus Areas:
- Managing invisible health risks
- Hormonal transitions and stamina
- Flare prevention at work
- Energy mapping for leadership performance
A Different Kind of Leadership Conversation
At Women in Cloud, we have learned something fundamental:
Performance is visible. Discipline is invisible.
Yet discipline determines whether leaders can serve, build, and lead over decades, not just quarters.
The Disciplined Advantage is about building that resilience intentionally.
Through science, lived experience, and practical frameworks, this summit equips leaders to:
- Anticipate strain instead of reacting to a crisis Design sustainable work rhythms
- Protect cognitive and emotional capital
- Lead from grounded strength
This is leadership infrastructure for the next decade.
Join Us
If you are a founder, executive, technologist, or senior professional navigating complexity and determined to lead well without sacrificing your health, clarity, or longevity, this summit is for you.
The #WICxWellness Summit 2026 is where performance meets preservation. Where ambition meets sustainability. Where leadership becomes truly durable.
We look forward to welcoming you. The Disciplined Advantage begins here.
Secure your spot: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/wicxwellness-summit-2026-tickets-1981616382945?aff=oddtdtcreator
Femtech World is continuing the search for a company to be crowned Startup of the Year.
The award is one of 10 to feature at the third annual Femtech World Awards.
The Startup of the Year Award celebrates an early-stage company making a bold impact in women’s health through innovation, vision and execution.
The winning startup will have demonstrated strong potential to transform care, accessibility, or awareness in women’s health with a scalable solution.
Consideration will be given to innovation, market traction, inclusivity, impact and the ability to address unmet needs.
The award is sponsored by Future Fertility.
The company is transforming fertility care with AI-powered solutions that close critical information gaps along the IVF journey.
Its clinically validated, non-invasive tools analyse oocyte images to predict each egg’s reproductive potential, supporting decision-making across key pathways: VIOLET™ for egg freezing, MAGENTA™ for IVF-ICSI, and ROSE™ for donor programmes and egg banks.
These reports deliver personalised insights into egg quality and ploidy potential, empowering patients and clinicians to make more informed decisions regarding next steps.
Today, Future Fertility’s technology is used in more than 300 clinics across 35+ countries.
Developed with the world’s largest oocyte image dataset linked to reproductive outcomes, Future Fertility’s AI models generate quality scores that not only guide treatment planning and manage expectations, but also serve as objective, actionable KPIs for labs—driving improved outcomes and transparency in fertility care worldwide.
The awards are free to enter, with winners receiving a trophy and an interview with Femtech World.
Find out more about the awards and enter for free here.
London-based women’s health platform SheMed has raised €43m to expand its UK operations and further develop its personalised healthcare platform.
The company, founded by sisters Olivia and Chloe Ferro in April 2024, will use the investment to scale its medical and technology teams, strengthen clinical infrastructure and enhance its data-driven systems.
SheMed offers weight management programmes using GLP-1 drugs — treatments that mimic a natural hormone regulating blood sugar and appetite — alongside wellness tracking and 24/7 support through its digital platform.
Olivia Ferro, co-founder and chief executive of SheMed, said: “For more than a decade, I searched for answers to an undiagnosed health issu.
“As a GLP-1 patient myself, I know how transformative the right diagnosis and treatment can be.
“We built SheMed to give women the personalised support I struggled to find: care that listens, understands and empowers.”
The funding comes amid a broader wave of investment in UK and European health technology, particularly in preventative care and women’s health.
Other UK-based companies in similar areas have also raised significant sums this year, including Numan, which secured €51.6m to expand its digital healthcare platform into female health, and Hormona, which raised €7.8m for its AI-driven hormone health tracking solution.
Related UK ventures such as Perci Health and CoMind have also attracted new funding for personalised, data-led healthcare models.
According to analysis by EU-Startups, UK start-ups have raised about €14.7bn so far in 2025, signalling strong investor confidence in the country’s innovation sector.
The new investment will also fund SheMed’s research and patient-experience initiatives, aimed at improving access to personalised care for women across the UK.
Later this month, SheMed plans to publish results from what it describes as the first female-focused GLP-1 clinical study.
The findings are expected to reveal how GLP-1 medications affect women’s hormonal and metabolic responses, helping to refine future treatment approaches.
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