Welcome to the our February update, where we take you through what’s been happening Inside OUTpatients over the past month.
Speaking at London Assembly
On the 22nd January, our Education and Policy Manager attended a session of the London Assembly Health Committee to give evidence on breast cancer screening uptake in the capital. The Committee wanted to understand why screening participation rates were lower in London than other parts of the country, and what they could do to improve this.
LGBTIQ+ people are less likely to be up-to-date with breast screening, and face multiple barriers to equal participation. During the session, we pushed strongly for the needs of LGBTIQ+ people in breast screening, calling for invitation opt-in options, community-centred awareness campaigns, and enhanced training for healthcare professionals to make sure services are inclusive and accessible for all.
We thank the committee for allowing us to share our insights, and our friends at Breast Cancer Now and Black Women Rising who joined us in sharing evidence with the Committee.
Cancer52 Health Inequalities Learning Event
At the Cancer52 Health Inequalities Learning Event, we spoke to a range of charities and NHS representatives about how to reduce inequalities in cancer care, especially for people affected by rare and less common cancers. These are cancers that make up a big share of cancer deaths yet often get less focus, funding and awareness in health policy and services.
We used the session to highlight our Remove the Doubt cervical screening campaign, showing how working closely with Cancer Alliances and the LGBTIQ+ community can help make health messages and services more inclusive, reaching people who might otherwise miss out on screening and early diagnosis.
We also shared some of our tips on how to partner with communities to build clear, engaging campaigns, and hope to inspire other organisations to work more closely with groups facing health inequalities.
Cancer Research UK (CRUK) Nurses and Allied Health Professionals Annual Networking Event
On the 27th of January, we had the opportunity to travel to Cambridge for the Cancer Research UK (CRUK) Nurses and Allied Health Professionals Annual Networking Event. This day brought together a wide range of nurses, allied health professionals, clinicians, and researchers, allowing us to share recent developments in LGBTIQ+ cancer care with professionals across the cancer pathway.
It was inspiring to see so many professionals actively looking to learn more about our community, and we were grateful to be able to share insights that can help make cancer services more inclusive and responsive to the needs of LGBTIQ+ patients.
Responding to the Cancer Plan
The Government released its long-anticipated Cancer Plan on the 4th of February, setting out their overview for cancer policy over the next ten years.
The Cancer Plan makes specific mention of some of the inequalities faced by LGBTIQ+ people, a change which OUTpatients has been consistently calling for. We are very pleased to see our efforts reflected in the final Plan, and we look forward to working with the Government and NHS to make the Plan a reality.
We launched a podcast!
Our new podcast, ‘OUTspoken’, officially launched this week!
Having cancer as an LGBTIQ+ person can be a very isolating experience, leaving people feeling like a minority within a minority.The new podcast, ‘OUTspoken’, aims to tackle this by sharing the experiences of LGBTIQ+ patients in their own words, and helping listeners to feel less alone.
Each episode features a different LGBTIQ+ person living with or beyond cancer, and discusses some of the unique challenges that are often left out of mainstream cancer narratives. In our first episode, we hear from Michael, a gay man living with anal cancer and small cell lung cancer. He speaks about how very different it is to tell people in the chemo room that you have anal cancer compared to telling people you have lung cancer, the importance and impact of mental health support for people with cancer, and how his decades of LGBTIQ+ activism have shaped how he is navigating both his cancer experiences.
Our next episode comes out in two weeks. Follow us on Spotify or Apple Podcasts to make sure you don’t miss it!
Cheshire and Merseyside Cancer Alliance HPV 3-Year Strategy
We also spoke at the launch of the Cheshire & Merseyside Cancer Alliance Strategy on HPV, which set out how the Alliance plans to reduce HPV-related cancers over the next three years.
Gay, bisexual, and men who have sex with men (GBMSM) are a target group in the plan due to higher risk of HPV, and the Alliance were keen to hear more about how to reach this community. We therefore walked the audience through our recent ‘Small Act, Big Impact’ campaign, which aimed to promote HPV vaccine uptake among MSM in Bradford and the surrounding areas.
Developed in partnership with West Yorkshire Cancer Alliance and marketing agency Mobas, the campaign was viewed over a million times, and directed thousands to our webpage on how to get vaccinated. Campaigns like this give us important lessons about how to connect with specific audiences. We want to share these learnings across the cancer sector so that other Cancer Alliances can build on this work, and ensure our community can access the care we need.
Updating our prescribing guidance for transgender and nonbinary patients
We are in the process of updating our TRANScribing resource, which helps healthcare professionals give respectful and appropriate care to transgender and non-binary people.
Developed in partnership with British Oncology Pharmacy Association (BOPA), the guidance explains important ideas around gender identity, offers simple, practical advice on having inclusive conversations and using the right language, and highlights how clinicians can think about gender-affirming care alongside other healthcare decisions.
The original guidance was published in 2024. We are now revising it to make sure we are up-to-date with the most recent research, so that clinicians feel confident prescribing, and patients are getting the best care possible.