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Can you believe it that we are now in last week of blood cancer awareness month 2017? Here at Leukaemia Care it has been a busy month with our Spot Leukaemia campaign and we are taking a look back at how it all started…
In 2016, 2,019 leukaemia patients shared their experience of leukaemia from diagnosis through to living with or beyond cancer in our patient survey. It was from this survey that we were able to identify a number of issues that could be causing delays in diagnosis:
1. Lack of public understanding of what leukaemia is.
2. A need for increased awareness of the signs and symptoms of leukaemia in both the public and primary healthcare professionals.
It was these findings that informed the Spot Leukaemia campaign.
The survey also highlighted issues at different stages of a leukaemia patient’s journey. Therefore, we developed the ‘Living with Leukaemia’ report – an 80-page report that covers the complete experience of leukaemia patients and makes 10 recommendations where improvements can be made. Ready to be launched to the public, healthcare professionals, policy makers and more at the start of blood cancer awareness month (BCAM)!
So on the 1st of September 2017, we hosted a launch event for the Spot Leukaemia campaign and the ‘Living with Leukaemia’ report. Leukaemia Care representatives, founders and volunteers joined together with representatives from other blood cancer charities, patient advocate groups and pharmaceutical companies at the Member’s Dining Room in the Houses of Parliament to show their support.
The launch event speakers included:
- A welcome from Leukaemia Care president, Richard Taylor.
- An insight to the patient survey and ‘Living with Leukaemia’ report by Jennie Bradley from Quality Health and Zack Pemberton-Whiteley (Head of Campaigns and Advocacy).
- An overview of Spot Leukaemia by Zack Pemberton-Whiteley.
- The importance of the Spot Leukaemia campaign to a patient, Nigel Deekes.
- A clinician’s perspective on Spot Leukaemia by Professor Mary Frances McMullin.
Brandcast Health were present and have kindly produced a webcast and highlights video of the event. So you can have the opportunity to experience the dark wood-panelled walls of Parliament and hear the speakers by watching the following videos: