Our Impact

Our pituitary gland plays an essential role in the way we feel, grow and live. When it isn’t functioning as it should these, among other basic human functions, are drastically affected.

Living with a pituitary condition all too often means living with feelings of isolation, anxiety and alienation from your own body. We’re here to change that.

For everyone affected by pituitary conditions – we hear you and are here for you. We offer practical, emotional and peer support to everyone in the pituitary community who needs it, to feel empowered and live with a greater sense of wellbeing.

We strive to support the clinical teams in caring for the pituitary community in the best way we can. From general practitioners dealing with the initial onset of symptoms, to A&E staff responding to adrenal crises and expert endocrinology teams giving ongoing specialist treatment, we’re on hand at every step of the journey. Because together we can support patients better.

Our Vision

Our vision is that all people with pituitary conditions can live well, now and in the future.

Our Mission

We’ll achieve this vision by working with everyone with a pituitary condition, their support networks and healthcare professionals to raise pituitary awareness and reduce time to diagnosis.

We’ll empower patients to navigate the UK healthcare system and obtain the best clinical outcomes possible and provide support to enable everyone with a pituitary condition to live as well as possible.

Our Values

Our values underpin the way we work and help us in achieving our mission

• We are welcoming
• We are caring
• We are empowering
• We are trustworthy
• We are collaborative

Our Strategy

In 2023, we set out our ambitious new strategy. This will guide our work in a post-pandemic landscape and against a backdrop of unprecedented challenges facing the NHS. We know that our services provide vital support for thousands of people each year. Our commitment to supporting everyone affected by pituitary conditions remains unchanged and underpins the ambitions set out in our strategy.

Read our 2023-2027 strategy

Our Annual Report

Read our full annual reports for 2023-2024

Our Year in Review for 2023-2024

How we Are Funded

We are hugely grateful to the hundreds of people who support our work with their time, financial donations and legacies. In addition to these donations we receive awards from Trusts, Foundations and pharmaceutical companies (in line with ABPI guidelines).

How we Work With Others

Throughout our 30 year history, The Pituitary Foundation has developed working relationships with healthcare companies, including in the pharmaceutical industry, in order to further our aims and vision that all people with pituitary conditions can live well, now and in the future. 

This interaction includes:

• Involvement in patient engagement and consultations
• Publicising opportunities for members of our community to become involved in research
• Production of health information 
• Acceptance of grant funding for specific areas of our work, including delivery of services

Our approach to how we work with healthcare companies is underpinned by four guiding principles:

• Clarity of purpose: We are clear about the reason for and the planned outcome of any collaboration – and the ultimate benefit for our community
• Integrity: We act, and are seen to act, with honesty and with integrity at all times
• Independence: We maintain our independence at all times
• Transparency: We are open and honest about the purpose of any collaboration and able to account publicly for any activities and funding provided to us by a company

Our commitment is to:

• Establish working relationships with companies that provide products, drugs or services to patients on a commercial or profit-making basis for the benefit of people affected by pituitary conditions and in line with our guiding principles.  The relationship is not subject to any conditions that prevent us from acting in the best interests of people affected by pituitary conditions;
• Only accept financial support from companies for activities that are within our strategic aims. The total amount of financial support from any individual companies will not exceed 5% of our total budgeted income for the financial year, unless approval to accept a higher amount is granted by the Board of Trustees. The total amount of income from all healthcare companies in any financial year will not exceed 25% of total income in that year, unless approved by the Board of Trustees;
• Ensure that we work with a variety of such companies, giving no preference to any one company in particular;
• Publish full financial disclosure of all funding received from any companies in our annual report and accounts and on our website;
• Ensure compliance with the charity’s conflicts of interest policies relating to a) trustees and staff and b) medical advisers acting as expert reviewers for our patient information;
• Ensure that all published materials relating to a specific activity are transparent in informing the nature of the relationship with any company sponsors;
• Ensure that under no circumstances will these companies influence our strategic direction, activities or the content of the information we provide to people affected by pituitary conditions;
• Put in place written agreements with companies to document the agreed working terms and conditions;
• Ensure our editorial independence is maintained so that we are free to comment in a balanced way about companies and their products; 
• Not endorse or campaign for any specific product, drug or service in return for financial support;
• Reserve the right to campaign for access to specific treatments if advised by our expert medical advisory panel that they are effective and of benefit to people affected by pituitary conditions.

We are guided by the best practice guidance to support patient organisations to report industry funding published in 2024 by the Association of British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI). 

Policy approved: February 2025