By London YPAG,
Recently our London YPAG group was invited to participate in the ‘AWARE for ALL’ event at the Camden Centre (basically a local town hall), which is in the same borough of London where our London YPAG is based. This was organized by an American organization, the Center for Information and Study on Clinical Research Participation (CISCRP), which is a nonprofit organisation founded for the purpose of educating the public, patients, the media, and policy makers in order to promote greater understanding and awareness of the clinical research process. This was their first foray over to England, they have run similar events to this in America for a number years. This event in particular aimed to provide education and empower the audience to make informed decisions about their health. The audience was made up of local residents, and people involved in healthcare – our colleague Simon Denegri gave the keynote talk and covered the event well in a recent blog post.
At AWARE for all, our London YPAG had a stand and Orlane, Nicke, Freya and Esme answered questions from members of the public about what our group do and why young people should be involved in research. Esme and Freya then participated in a ‘Medical Heros’ speaking panel, discussing their personal experience of taking part in a clinical trial. This was a very unique event and London YPAG were delighted to be part of it – it’s not often that you can get young people, researchers, charity partners, patients and members of the public all together in one room – which isn’t in a hospital or at hotel, as Simon noted – and the enthusiasm for clinical trials was almost palpable. Can’t wait for the next CISCRP event.