Giving womb cancer a voice
What is Peaches Patient Voices?
Peaches Patient Voices connects people who’ve been affected by womb cancer, as a patient or carer, with researchers. Each person’s experience of womb cancer is unique, and anyone whose life has been touched by womb cancer is welcome to join.
With increasing numbers of people being diagnosed with womb cancer every year, researchers need to find ways to prevent womb cancer, diagnose it earlier, and find better treatments. However, they can’t do this alone.
Involving people who’ve been affected by womb cancer in their work is key to helping researchers understand what matters most to them. It’s vitally important that people with lived experience of womb cancer help shape research to improve womb cancer outcomes.
Researchers need to hear a broad range of voices to make sure research outcomes are relevant to everyone affected by womb cancer. We’re therefore keen to hear from people with a wide range of backgrounds and experiences of womb cancer.
For more information about Peaches Patient Voices, you can watch a brief presentation by Helen White, Peaches Patient Voices Lead, on our YouTube channel:
Peaches Patient Voices
What happens when I join?
When a researcher contacts Peaches about an opportunity to get involved or take part in their research, we’ll email you the details so you can decide if it’s something you’d like to do. Research opportunities are very varied and it’s really flexible, you can get involved in as much or as little as you like.
Research involvement opportunities include things like completing a survey, helping to write a patient information sheet, or joining a workshop or a patient advisory group. These may involve working alone or in a group, and can often be done from home. Some are one-off activities, while others require a longer-term commitment.
Getting involved in womb cancer research can be enormously rewarding. These are just some of the things our members have told us about what this has meant to them:
“I do feel that the patient voice is vitally important to give a practical lived experience to help those doing the research gauge the likely response of patients, especially to try to express what an emotional and bewildering time a cancer diagnosis can be.”
“It felt empowering to be able to share my point of view and experience, like it was helping something good to come out of what has been a trying time.”
“It is so important to use my experience to contribute to any work that is being carried out in womb cancer. I do believe that you can take something horrible and use it for good.”
“What interested me about the project is that [researchers] are finally listening to what patients want addressing.”
What else does Peaches Patient Voices do?
Members of Peaches Patient Voices are offered opportunities to share their experience of womb cancer in many other ways. For example, some have contributed to webinars, talks, and educational programmes for doctors.
Members also play a vital role in informing the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) recommendations on new womb cancer treatments. This may involve completing a questionnaire or survey, joining a discussion group, or acting as a patient expert, and can make an enormous difference to help people with womb cancer live well for longer.
Contacting Peaches Patient Voices
If you would like to join, or have any questions about Peaches Patient Voices, please get in touch via the email address below.
If you are a researcher or an organisation seeking patient and public involvement of people with lived experience of womb cancer, we would be happy to hear from you.
Email us at [email protected].
