Looking beyond cancer ‘survivorship’: meeting the needs of a diverse, multi-ethnic society

A one day national conference exploring policy and practice debates about how best to meet the needs of childhood and adult cancer ‘survivors’ in a diverse, multi-ethnic society was held at the Thackray Museum, Leeds on Wednesday 7th July 2010.    The Department of Health Sciences and the Department of Social Policy and Social Work, University of York organized the event, which was supported by Macmillan Cancer Support (http://www.macmillan.org.uk) and the British Infertility Counselling Association (http://www.bica.net/)

This website contains presentations given at the conference and as way of context we provide a summary of the day. 

The audience included health and social care practitioners and academics in addition to cancer survivors and their families. Professor Mark Johnson (DeMonfort University), one of the leading UK scholars on ethnicity and health, chaired the event.  National Cancer Director, Professor Sir Mike Richards, CBE used the plenary address to outline the current policy priorities of the Department of Health.   

Other keynote talks explored the long-term impact of cancer on fertility (Dr Sangeeta Chattoo and Dr Marilyn Crawshaw) and how best to involve patients from minority ethnic groups in service delivery (Dr Deborah Fenlon, University of Southampton ).  Jimmyteens.tv presented a documentary, especially prepared for the event, in which young people talked about living with cancer (http://www.jimmyteens.tv/2010/07/13/beyond-cancer/), while Katherine Lee spoke of own personal experiences of survivorship, following a diagnosis of cancer, nineteen years ago.

Afternoon workshops, offering more open discussion, focused on fertility Professor Lorraine Culley and Dr Nicky Hudson, University of DeMontfort) ; user involvement in service delivery  (Rose Thompson, BME Cancer Communities); commissioning (Sean Duffy, Yorkshire Cancer Network and Kim Fell, North Trent Cancer Network); communication (Dr Jane Boden, British Infertility Cancer Association); and responding to the needs of ethnic minority populations (Professor Gurch Randhawa, University of Bedfordshire).

The conference is one in a series of dissemination events associated with a CRUK  (http://www.cancerresearchuk.org) funded project - led by Professor Karl Atkin - exploring the experience of cancer related fertility in an ethnically diverse population.   

Summaries of this project are as follows:

For further information contact Karl Atkin (ka512@york.ac.uk).