Welcome to our October update, where we take you through what’s been happening inside OUTpatients over the past month.
Salivary Gland Cancer Day
We attended the second Salivary Gland Cancer Day. The theme was “One Community, One Cause: Turning Global Connections into Action.” Salivary gland cancers are rare, and so can be underrepresented in conversations about head and neck cancers. The event helped raise awareness of this condition and the impact it can have on people’s lives. We got to hear about new research and met patients, carers, healthcare professionals, and other organisations working in this area.
Shine Connect 2026
We attended Shine Cancer Support’s conference, the UK’s only conference for people in their 20s, 30s and 40s living with cancer.
Younger people are more likely to identify as LGBTIQ+, so it was a great chance to meet community members, share information about our support, and raise awareness of our work.
It was a privilege to hear from so many experts, including healthcare professionals, people with lived experience, and young advocates speak about managing their diagnosis and treatments.
Community Conversations
Our next Community Conversations event is taking place this month!
This session is for older LGBTI+ people and will explore health, ageing, and the body through discussion and creative activities. Many older LGBTI+ people feel left out of conversations about health and ageing. This event will create a safe space to share experiences, connect with others, and make sure people’s voices are heard.
We will have an in-person, interactive session including group discussion and a creative activity. Lunch and creative materials provided free and open to all. This event is open to people who identify as LGBTI+, and are over 45 years old.
5 Years EU Cancer Mission event
We went to Brussels to mark five years of the EU Cancer Mission, and to look at how we can fully achieve its goals by 2030. The Mission has four key objectives: understanding cancer, prevention and early detection, diagnosis and treatment, and improving quality of life. Our organisational mission spans across these areas, and the conference was a chance for us to both learn and share our learnings with similar organisations across the continent.
As well as sharing our resources, we got to meet incredible people with shared goals, including some old friends from YARN (The European Youth Cancer Network). We also heard from panelists about the projects they were coordinating across the EU.
Cervical screening invitations for transmasculine people
This month, we ran a workshop about changes to cervical screening invitations. In the past, people registered with their GP as Male or Indeterminate did not automatically receive cervical screening invitations. This meant some transmasculine people could miss out on this life-saving care. The NHS has tried to fix this by allowing transmasculine people to ‘opt-in’ for cervical screening reminders.
We were asked to run workshops to learn more about people’s awareness and experiences of this ‘opt-in’ system. Our first workshop took place last week and provided fascinating insights into how our community has reacted to the update. What we learn will help the NHS create resources for patients and healthcare professionals, improve awareness, and reduce communication barriers.
Neighbourhood Health Simulation
We attended Macmillan’s two-day Neighbourhood Health Framework simulation event in Wembley.
The simulation brought in real healthcare professionals from GPs, to pharmacists, to commissioners and charities to act as if they were delivering real services. This helps the decision makers to understand how the framework could work in real life and where improvements are still needed.
The OUTpatients team attended as observers. We watched how people interacted in the simulation assessed where people were working together well, and where it could improve. At the end of the day, the reflection session alongside the other observers allowed us to provide some critical feedback to the current design, and suggest changes to make it more inclusive for LGBTIQ+ people.
Education sessions
Our Education team has also been delivering training to professionals across the country. We went back to visit some friends over at the Nottingham Breast Institute to train their mammographers on LGBTIQ+ inclusive screening. We discussed community risk factors, barriers to screening invitations, inclusive language, and actionable steps staff can take to create inclusive environments for patients.
We also delivered a talk on LGBTIQ+ Inclusive Cancer Care for teenagers and young adults (TYA). This was at the Pan-London Cancer Health Inequalities Symposium at the Royal College of Nursing. Our Education Officer, Jaz, went through the barriers faced by LGBTIQ+ TYAs, drawing on patient stories and their own experience of TYA care. Jaz spoke on the data gap for LGBTIQ+ TYAs , and how better data collection can help us to deliver better care.
Recruiting our new Senior Leadership Team
For the first time in our history, OUTpatients is creating three new senior leadership roles alongside our CEO:
- Chief Operating Officer
- Chief Medical Officer
- Head of Fundraising and Business Development
We have made strong progress towards our goals, but to create lasting change we need to grow in a sustainable way.
These new roles will help lead the next stage of our development and strengthen the impact of our work.
Applications close at 2pm on Friday 16 October 2026.
OUTspoken podcast
We are about to wrap up the first season of our podcast, OUTspoken. We started this project to give our community more chances to hear each other’s stories and connect outside of peer support. That’s why each episode features an LGBTIQ+ person living with and beyond cancer, speaking directly about their journey. The next episode will feature Dan Edwards aka DJ Dallyn, who speaks about his journey with bowel cancer, music, and founding the fabulous Booty Call CIC.
Dan is also hosting the Booty Call Ball on Friday 23rd of October to raise money for OUTpatients. Make sure you don’t miss it!
Saying goodbye to Jawadat
Our Volunteering and Communities Manager, Jawadat, is leaving OUTpatients to start a new chapter in her career.
Over the past two and a half years, she has forged lasting connections between OUTpatients and community groups, charities, and universities. Jawadat also created our Community Conversations programme, helping us reach marginalised communities, and making sure their experiences shape our work.
We thank Jawadat for everything she has done for OUTpatients and wish her every success in the future. She will be greatly missed.