“In the past doctors have missed a vital diagnosis or even misdiagnosed
due to darker skin tones, the signs were less exposed.”
– From the poem “Invisible” by Duke Al
If you’re familiar with Bowel Research UK, you’ll know that we believe in the importance of the patient voice in bowel cancer and bowel disease research. Patients and carers can help to improve diagnosis, treatment, and quality of life by getting involved in research and contributing their skills, opinions and personal experiences. This inclusion means that treatments and changes to care that come from research are more likely to be beneficial for the very people they intend to help.
But we need more patients and members of the public to get involved in research, and we need a wide range of people to join the conversation. This film from Egality Health and sponsor charities explains, through a poem by Duke Al, why it’s important for people of all ethnic backgrounds to be involved in research. Because illnesses affect people differently and people respond differently to treatments, care that works for one person may not work for someone else, and ethnicity is a factor in this. It’s therefore so important to have people of different ethnicities and backgrounds contributing to research right from the very beginning of a project.
Watch the video below to find out more, and share this page far and wide so that more people join our PaRT network, get involved in research, and help us to end bowel cancer and bowel disease for everyone.