Catch up on our Q&A session for volunteers in the Southeast of England
At our latest Q&A webinar event, Our Future Health volunteers in the Southeast of England heard from Chief Executive and Chief Medical Officer, Dr Raghib Ali OBE, Chief Compliance and Integrity Officer, Fiona Maleady-Crowe and NHS Doctor and cancer survivor Dr Anisha Patel.
It was the third in an ongoing series of webinars, following our inaugural event in the West Midlands earlier this year, and a second event in London last month.
The event experienced some technical difficulties at the start, which meant we couldn’t broadcast it live as planned. However, Raghib, Fiona and Anisha were still able to record their conversation and upload it to YouTube.
Since then, thousands of people have watched the recording, to hear an update on our programme and get answers to questions submitted by volunteers ahead of the event.
A remarkable response from the Southeast
Raghib kicked off the webinar by acknowledging the contributions of our volunteers in the Southeast of England.
“We’ve really had a remarkable response from across the whole of the UK, and particularly in the Southeast. Some of our highest response rates have been in this region, and we’ve had dozens of clinics across the Southeast. As a result, we’ve now got more than 2.5 million people who have joined the programme overall.
“The reason we need such large numbers is that most diseases are relatively uncommon. To understand how to prevent them, we need hundreds of thousands – even millions – of people taking part.
“Most diseases arise from a mix of genetics and other risk factors, such as where people live, their work, their education, diet, physical activity, alcohol, tobacco and many wider social determinants of health,” Raghib explained. “By combining questionnaire data, physical measurements and blood samples, we can gain a detailed picture of a person’s health and the factors that shape it.”
‘Research is vital’
Our guest at the event, Anisha, is an NHS GP in the Southeast who specialises in women’s health and cancer awareness.
“I was diagnosed with stage 3 rectal cancer in 2018,” she said. “I was 39, with children aged 5 and 6, and had no risk factors. My husband is a consultant specialising in bowel cancer, which made the whole experience even more surreal.
“When I started asking my oncologist about the evidence for treatment and survival, she had to tell me that much of the research simply didn’t represent people like me. My five-year survival figures from medical school were based on men over 60, overwhelmingly White. I wasn’t represented, and this has been a recurring theme throughout my treatment and my life after cancer.
“We now live in a world where 1 in 2 of us will develop cancer. Cases among younger people are rising, but we don’t really know why. That’s why I volunteered for Our Future Health – research is vital. We need answers that are genuinely representative of the population, and at present there are not enough people like me taking part in research.”
Representation has been a major focus for Our Future Health, as some groups in the past have lacked representation, including people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities. It also includes people with lower incomes.
“One of the biggest challenges in research has been the lack of participation from groups who often have the worst outcomes,” said Fiona. “If we don’t understand what causes disease in under-represented groups, or which treatments work best for them, inequalities will continue to widen.”
Emerging research
Raghib then shared insights into how our volunteers’ data is already helping researchers with their work.
“One example is work by Dr Toral Gathani at Oxford, who is looking at cancer risk and treatment across different ethnic groups,” said Raghib. “Incidence varies significantly between populations, and we still don’t fully understand why. This study will examine risk factors, treatment response and outcomes to build a clearer picture.
“Another study at Glasgow Caledonian University is investigating chronic liver disease, which has risen sharply in recent decades. Researchers there will examine genetic and environmental factors, as well as alcohol, viral infection and obesity.
“These studies are only possible at this scale because of the number of people involved in Our Future Health. All of this contributes to a future of precision prevention, where we can identify people at risk much earlier and help them to act.”
What’s next on the horizon?
To close the session, our panel talked about Our Future Health’s next steps.
“We’ll be getting in touch with some volunteers and potentially asking for more information from them, to help strengthen the research,” said Raghib. “We might ask for things like updated questionnaires and, at intervals, further blood samples to measure biomarkers over time.
“We may also ask for information related to cognitive function to help understand dementia risk. Our Future Health is a long-term project, and the greatest benefits will emerge over years, though important results could come much sooner.”
Let’s prevent disease together
By volunteering for Our Future Health, you can help health researchers discover new ways to prevent, detect and treat common conditions such as diabetes, cancer, heart disease, stroke and Alzheimer’s.