Janet Cullingford, Services Manager at delivery partner ICANN tells us about their recent AGM and input on the day related to their cancer advocacy work:
On Tuesday 6th October Independent Community Advocacy Network North (ICANN) held our Annual General Meeting, as well as the usual AGM business, this gave us a wonderful opportunity to celebrate our involvement with OPAAL on the Cancer Older People and Advocacy Project, by showcasing the Cancer Voices presentation, including film.
Angela Broadbridge the project lead from OPAAL, introduced this with a presentation explaining both the Cancer Voices and ‘Train the Trainer’ work which we participated in.
Our audience were then invited to watch a short film designed to encourage health professionals to refer older people affected by cancer to our service. These films are also available on this blog, and on You tube. This was very well received, with people commenting on how it brought the project to life.
This was followed by two ICANN ‘train the trainer’ representatives, talking about their own cancer journeys; Richard Timson, one of our volunteer peer advocates involved with our Cancer Older People and Advocacy work, and Marilyn Eckton who is a member of our Local Cancer Champions Board. They were both wonderful advocates for the benefits of the Cancer Older People and Advocacy project. Their stories were both emotive and powerful and told from their own experiences. Whilst those experiences were quite different both had also shared many of the same issues, issues which could have been improved with the support of a peer advocate.
Since this event they have been invited by two of our local clinical commissioning groups, to present to their boards. They will talk about the project, as part of the patient experience group, to inform future service delivery.
Janet Cullingford, ICANN
Older People Living with Cancer 