Excellence in Communications - Payers/Policy Makers

Summary of work

Blood cancer patients in England have poor survival rates when compared to other counties in Europe and also have worse outcomes when compared to cancers of solid tumours. In England, blood cancer patients also report poorer outcomes in the Cancer Patient Experience Survey; in part because of inferior data, ageism in treatment decisions and service capacity. Blood cancers are also less well understood than solid tumours, providing an acute challenge for communicators looking to overcome these challenges.

Roche translated a wealth of information and evidence into engaging, compelling materials and formed a coalition of supporters to demand action from Government. The campaign supported the work of the National Clinical Director for Cancer in his work to establish an expert group on the issue of ageism in cancer, upskilled over ten patient groups on the value of high quality data, and raised the issues on the political agenda through executive meetings with high-profile politicians.

The campaign culminated in five recommendations within the cancer taskforce that focus on cancer capacity, data and ageism, delivering hard results for patients and healthcare professionals.

Judges' comments

This thoughtful programme brought together three of the four major blood cancer patient groups and developed detailed recommendations, ultimately helping ageism to be dealt with in the cancer plan. We saw good strategy and engagement and clear results.