On Tuesday 16 May, the Bone Cancer Research Trust headed to Perth to hold our first ever Scottish Patient and Carer Day.
The day was open to anyone affected by primary bone cancer and ran alongside the Scottish Sarcoma Network's education day, allowing those in attendance to hear from healthcare professionals and researchers alike, while sharing their experiences with others affected by this rare form of cancer in open discussions.
The Scottish Sarcoma Network meets 3 times a year, bringing together oncologists, surgeons, nurses and many more professionals dedicated to improving the care sarcoma patients are receiving. As patients are the focal point of these meetings it is crucial that their voice is represented, and the attendance of charities such as the Bone Cancer Research Trust is a great way to ensure this.
The Bone Cancer Research Trust is very grateful to all in attendance for welcoming our patients and carers to the group, and in particular to Dr Fiona Cowie, of The Beatson West of Scotland Cancer Centre, for talking with our patients and carers about primary bone cancer, its treatment options and providing updates of clinical trials in this area. Our patients and carers also heard from Dr Tsimbouri, of The University of Glasgow, to discuss research and hear about her exciting work funded by the Bone Cancer Research Trust.
Mr Lindsay Campbell, the Scottish Sarcoma Network National Manager, spoke to us about the day's success:
It was our pleasure to support the first Scottish patient and carer day of the Bone Cancer Research Trust in parallel with the summer 2017 education day of the Scottish Sarcoma Network. It was my pleasure to give an overview of the Scottish Sarcoma Network to the patients and carers in attendance and to start the long term partnership working with them.’’
Please contact us if you are interested in learning more or attending any of the Bone Cancer Research Trust's future patient and carer days across the UK. You can hear from our researchers, patients and healthcare professionals at our annual patient conference held in Birmingham on Saturday 22 July. The Bone Cancer Conference is free to attend and you can register your place here.
What is the Scottish Sarcoma Network?
High quality sarcoma care requires partnership working between patients, carers, charities, universities, external companies, Local Authorities and NHS Scotland; together these groups form the Scottish Sarcoma Network (SSN).
The SSN is the managed clinical network for sarcomas in Scotland, their two primary aims are to ensure equity of care and continually improving quality of care. Equity of care requires the 32 Local Authorities, 14 NHS Boards and 5 sarcoma specialist centres in Scotland to be aligned so that each patient receives the sarcoma care they require as locally as possible. Continually improving the quality of care requires the capture of each sarcoma patient’s care to enable improvements to be identified and implemented.
You can read more about the Scottish Sarcoma Network at www.ssn.scot.nhs.uk.
