Macmillan Cancer Support, one of Britain's largest cancer charities, holds its annual ball inside the Victoria and Albert Museum on Thursday 19 November 2026.
The Victoria and Albert Museum in South Kensington hosts the Macmillan Ball on Thursday 19 November 2026. It is the most established of the fundraising evenings held by Macmillan Cancer Support, one of Britain’s largest cancer charities.
Douglas Macmillan founded the charity in 1911 at Castle Cary in Somerset. He had watched his father die of cancer and found almost nothing available to help.
It was the Society for the Prevention and Relief of Cancer, then the National Society for Cancer Relief from 1924, and has carried his name since 1989. Its work is living with a diagnosis rather than curing it, and the Macmillan nurse is the visible part of that work.
The charity raises almost all of its income from the public rather than from government. A ball at a national museum reaches donors that a street collection cannot.
The money from the evening funds nursing posts, benefits advice and helpline staff.