Sarah, our new involvement officer shares a bit about herself and why she's excited to work with Breast Cancer Voices. She also has some exciting updates about what the Breast Cancer Voices team will be doing this year, and how we want to continue to develop the Voices community.
I’ve always been fascinated by stories
After finishing my undergraduate degree in linguistics at Lancaster University in 2017, I moved to Sheffield, and immediately fell in love with the scenery and culture of the city. I worked for a year as an ESOL teacher, teaching English to asylum seekers and refugees, and then worked as a mentor in a secondary school. Here I worked with year 10s and 11s to help them overcome barriers in their studies, as well as organising trips to encourage students to aspire to higher education after school.
It was amazing to get to know so many different students, and to hear about their lives and their hopes for the future, as well as to see the incredible diversity in people’s experiences, needs, and ways of working together.
A change of direction
When Covid-19 turned the world upside-down, I decided it was time for a change, and after a 10-month stint in Germany I started a master’s degree in Intercultural Communication and International Development at Sheffield University. This year was so important to me in confirming what I’d always thought - that any project or service is only meaningful when it’s fully informed by, and relevant to, the people it’s for. I was very lucky to do research in Peru and with City of Sanctuary in Sheffield, and both of these showed me the importance of relationships, trust, and listening to and acting on the voice of lived experience.
Joining Breast Cancer Now, I am so excited about the emphasis on just this, and I am looking forward to hearing your stories, and working to ensure that your voices are heard and are a key part our work.
We have big plans for 2023
As the Breast Cancer Voices team, Susanna and I are so proud to have such a vibrant, diverse community of Voices, and we want everyone to be represented and heard. Over the next year, we’ll be working in 4 different areas:
- Connecting with more people to ensure that the work of Breast Cancer Now is shaped by, and relevant to, everyone affected by breast cancer.
- Making sure you feel part of a strong community that’s making a difference. We’ll be thinking about how you can connect with other Voices so we can get to know each other better, both locally and across the UK.
- Working with Breast Cancer Now staff to make sure that everyone knows how important Voices are, so that your experiences are included in everything we do.
- Improving how we give you feedback and updates about the opportunities you’ve been involved in.
You can help us shape Breast Cancer Voices
We’re currently doing an evaluation of the past year of Breast Cancer Voices, which will help us shape our direction and priorities for this year. Your answers to the evaluation survey can help us know what your experiences of being a Voice are, and whether we’re still meeting the aims we set out in the co-creation workshop.
If you haven’t completed the evaluation survey, you still have a week to do it. You can follow the link in your bulletin to fill it out.
We’re so grateful to have you as Breast Cancer Voices, and for everything that you do. We hope that this year, as we continue to develop our Voices community, you will know how important you are in helping us reach our goal that, by 2050, everyone diagnosed with breast cancer lives, and is supported to live well.
Share your voice
This opportunity has expired. You can check out our Share your voice page for more ways to get involved.