Sarah Markham and Graeme Dickie joined the Cancer Rresearch UK Centre for Drug Development (CDD) patient involvement panel last year. Through sharing their experiences, they help teams designing and conducting cancer trials understand what matters most to people affected by cancer.
The CDD patient involvement panel was created to ensure the voices of people affected by cancer are considered throughout the development of clinical trials of innovative cancer therapies. Members contribute lived and living perspectives to discussions about clinical trial design and participant facing information, helping keep patient voices at the heart of the work.
Hear directly from members of the panel as they share how their lived experience helps shape discussions about cancer research and why being involved matters to them.
Sarah was diagnosed with colorectal cancer in 2022 and received surgery and chemotherapy. She is now in remission. Alongside her own experience, cancer has affected several members of her family, motivating her to use her lived experience to support cancer research.
Sarah says one of the most rewarding parts of being involved has been the opportunity to learn from and synergise with others, share ideas and work collaboratively to improve cancer research. She values hearing different perspectives and contributing her own experiences to discussions that help researchers better understand the needs of people affected by cancer.
Graeme was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2013 and has been receiving treatment ever since. Through his experience of living with cancer and navigating different treatment options, he understands the importance of ongoing research and development of new treatments.
He joined the panel because he wanted to use his experience to contribute to work that could benefit others affected by cancer. As a member of the panel, he has helped review information provided to patients and contributed to discussions on topics affecting CDD’s portfolio of cancer trials. More recently, he was involved in conversations about how new technologies, including GenAI assisted content authoring tools, could support the development of clinical trial documents.
Graeme says being involved has been rewarding, particularly seeing how patient perspectives are considered in research discussions and decision-making. His experiences help bring a patient perspective to conversations that may ultimately affect future patients.
By involving people affected by cancer throughout research, researchers can better understand patient needs, experiences and priorities. This helps ensure research is informed by the people it is designed to benefit. Sarah and Graeme's stories show how sharing lived experience and perspectives can help shape cancer research and ensure the voices of people affected by cancer remain at the heart of our work.
If you've been affected by cancer and would like to use your experience to help shape our work, explore our involvement opportunities and find out how you can make a difference.
Browse a list of activities you can participate in and apply for to help shape work throughout the charity as well as for wider organisations.
