Are you a healthcare professional?
If so, we’re calling on you to take the PRD Pledge. We want to see that Pelvic Radiation Disease (PRD) is widely accepted and recognised as a serious consequence of cancer treatment.
We’re calling on healthcare professionals to take the PRD Pledge and play a part in raising awareness of PRD across the healthcare community. Your voice matters – and even a small change in language can make a significant difference.
What we hope this will do:
- Raise awareness of Pelvic Radiation Disease amongst healthcare professionals.
- Help people living with the condition feel validated – Many people with PRD struggle with symptoms or experiences that others can’t see or don’t understand.
- Connect people living with PRD to a community – knowing it has a name makes it easier to find others going through the same thing. That sense of shared experience can reduce isolation.
- Empower people to seek support from organisations like us. We know that when people don’t know the terminology it’s hard to get help – many people go years without having the answer to what’s causing their symptoms.
- Open the door to support and care – using the term PRD will help health professionals find resources like the PRD Best Practice Pathway and lead to improved access to treatments, medication, or services that can improve quality of life.
What people living with PRD want you to know
Here’s what individuals have shared about their experiences.
“If I were to see the term Pelvic Radiation Disease written in a medical letter, it would mean the world to me. It would mean that what I live with would finally be recognised. To call it by what it truly is – Pelvic Radiation Disease – would mean that there is finally a recognition of the life changes that it brings.”
A lady who has been living with PRD for over 5 years
“Though I’ve been living with Pelvic Radiation Disease for 16 years, I was only told in 2019 what it was. I really believed that, before I was told, I was going mad and very close to taking my life. Not now — there is a great deal of medical service that’s beginning to recognise PRD.
There is still much more that needs to be done.”
Wendy – Living with PRD
“This disease affects all basic functions. This disease has changed my life. I can’t work and I am no longer the mum I wanted to be. For someone like me, mentally, this was devastating. Pelvic Radiation Disease is a very real thing and needs to be recognised and treated as such, so people like me can get the help they need and deserve.”
Becky – living with PRD and member of our Patient Advisory Group.
“When I saw ‘Pelvic Radiation Disease’ written in my clinic letter, it meant a lot to me.
Even though, in my head, I already knew I had PRD, having it recognised in this way by my gastroenterologist truly validated my experience.”
Sarah – living with PRD for 12 years
Healthcare professionals can Take the PRD Pledge now
If you are living with PRD and want to get involved visit our PRD Pledge page for more information
Modified: 18th June 2025