WALC

Patient advocacy

Historically, lung cancer in the UK has had a low public profile and this lack of awareness means that the disease suffers from negative perceptions and a poor understanding of signs and symptoms.  Additionally, issues regarding treatment options, quality of care and research funding need to be highlighted in order to help improve lung cancer services and outcomes.

Patient involvement is vitally important, and can help to:

• raise the profile of lung cancer by creating awareness and more positive images of the disease
• improve early detection rates by raising awareness of disease signs and symptoms
• improve treatment and care by providing information and support and educating the public and health professionals
• support lung cancer research by helping secure funding and improving recruitment into clinical trials.

The Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation is committed to improving lung cancer outcomes and raising the profile of lung cancer through its Lung Cancer Awareness Campaignand Patient Involvement Programme.

The Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation’s Patient Involvement Programme provides a voice for lung cancer by identifying, encouraging, training and supporting people affected by lung cancer, enabling them to meaningfully contribute to improving lung cancer services and raise awareness of this devastating disease.

Examples of patient involvement activities to date include the Database of Individual Experiences (DIPEx) project, which is an internet-based multimedia resource at www.dipex.org, providing personal experiences of health and illness.

Several of our patient advocates also sit on health planning and NHS committees such as the National Cancer Research Institute (NCRI) Consumer Liaison Group; the Clinical Standards Board for Scotland (CSBS) Lung Cancer Project Group; the Scottish Cancer Group (SCG) Patient Information Sub-group; and the Intercollegiate Lung Cancer Group (ICLCG).