It was a privilege to attend the inaugural Black in Cancer conference, held in partnership with Cancer Research UK at the Science Museum on 10 and 11 October. I attended with Isabella Hjelmstad, Zainab Kalokoh and Rhianne Beveney.
Black in Cancer’s mission is to strengthen the network between Black people in the cancer space whilst highlighting Black excellence in cancer research and medicine.
Over the course of two days we heard from oncologists, patient advocates and policy makers. We were presented with scientific talks on cutting-edge research, which included a very interesting talk on cell autophagy in pancreatic and lung cancer.
We heard some very emotional and inspirational patient experiences from speakers, including MP Dawn Butler and Victoria Ekanoye, who is known for her acting role in Coronation Street.
It was inspirational and motivational to see the amplification of Black voices in cancer and understand the depth of the disparity as well as ways to change this. There were a diverse range of perspectives for us to hear from and I am very grateful for the opportunity to attend.
We also attended a networking dinner in the Wonderlab, with canapes and wine and it was a great opportunity for us to meet and network with various levels of research staff. We also gained an insight into the different avenues of research we can progress to, in line with our career goals.