Cancer & Us: Community Conversations

Unfortunately, Greater Manchester has poor cancer outcomes with death rates around 10% higher than the UK average. Contributing factors include higher levels of smoking, health inequalities as well as lower uptake of national cancer screening programmes compared to other areas.

Talking about cancer and research isn’t always easy and we wanted to explore how we could have inclusive, equitable and community-based conversations about these topics. In partnership with people affected by cancer, Gorton-based social enterprise Healthy Me Healthy Communities (HMHC), the LGBT Foundation, and the National Institute for Health and Care (NIHR) Research Manchester Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) and NIHR Manchester Clinical Research Facility (CRF), we co-created Cancer & Us: Community Conversations.

Our approach

• We worked with organisations with a shared interest in equitable health research and strong links with local communities experiencing inequalities related to cancer.

• We ran 5 co-design workshops with staff, volunteers, researchers, service users, patients and carers to shape the engagement programme.

• With HMHC, we designed ‘Cook & Chat’, a programme of 6 half-day workshops and two public events where people learnt about healthy eating by cooking tasty and affordable meals whilst having open conversations about cancer and research. Three films were produced highlighting the conversations and activities.

• With the LGBT Foundation, we developed a series of creative workshops which brought together members of the LGBTQIA+ community, a researcher and an artist to explore cancer experiences, health inequalities and data.  A zine (a self-published magazine) was produced and shared digitally and with GP practices in Manchester.

• Programme participants and Get Vocal on Cancer Network members visited the Cancer Research UK Manchester Institute Cancer Biomarker Centre and spoke to researchers to find out more about their laboratory research. Eight films were created sharing participant perspectives and the research of BRC-supported researchers.

• Project outputs included 11 films, a cookbook and a zine, the week-long #CancerAndUs digital campaign marking World Cancer Day and targeted outreach engaging new partner groups nationally and locally. The films were broadcast on TVs in patient waiting areas across Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust.

What difference we made

• The programme engaged 111 people through face-to-face activities and events. Of the 62% of participants who shared their demographic information, over 30% were of Asian, African, Caribbean or Arab heritages. There was a broad range of ages from 25 to over 75 years.

• The campaign content was seen 94k times on social media, generating 2000 engagements and 4854 video views.

• 92% of respondents who participated in the project evaluation are now more confident having conversations about cancer and research with others.

• Over 75% of respondents feel they have learnt more about cancer and health research.

• All respondents felt able to openly share experiences and perspectives and felt valued and listened to.

• 40% of project participants are now taking part in other research-related activities.

• Cancer & Us also strengthened relationships and created new opportunities to support research:
  
  - A new Community Cancer Insight Group was developed, an innovative community-listening approach to patient and public involvement in the NIHR Manchester BRC Cancer Prevention and Early Detection Theme, part of the Cancer Cluster.
  
  - With HMHC and the James Lind Alliance, we have secured funding and delivered Gorton Health Matters. This community research priority-setting partnership identified a top 10 list of health and wellbeing priorities in Gorton and Abbey Hey. These are supporting future research projects and funding applications.

Thank you to everyone that shared their perspectives and took part in this programme, and for the Manchester BRC and Manchester CRF for funding this initiative.