For Sickle Cell Awareness Month, our sickle cell Patient Voice Group discuss their lived experiences with sickle cell, shedding light on how organisations need to be considerate when engaging with patients. They emphasise the need for genuine engagement and transparency from researchers, while highlighting the importance of building trust within communities that have historically been overlooked. The discussion looks to the future, advocating for more personalised support, better treatment options and a stronger focus on the diverse experiences of those affected by sickle cell. Marie Nugent, Community Manager for the Genomics England Diverse Data Initiative co-hosts this episode with Natasha Gordon-Douglas, sickle cell patient advocate for the Genomics England Diverse Data Initiative and Lead Mentor at the Sickle Cell Society. They are joined by Oleander Agbetu, who cares for her son with sickle cell, and is also a member of the Solace sickle cell and thalassaemia support group board, and Jayson Kupoluyi, sickle cell advocate and volunteer for the Sickle Cell Society. The episode also features insights from some of the other members of the Patient Voice Group; Hazel Attua, Samuel Chuku and Zainab Garba-Sani. The Patient Voice Group are a group of people affected by sickle cell who share with Genomics England their expertise, based on their lived experience, to inform our sickle cell programme within the Diverse Data Initiative. "If we as parent/carers and advocates and all the rest of it can even make a little slight difference to someone’s care, that’s what I want to do. That’s why I’m here." You can read the transcript below or download it here: https://www.genomicsengland.co.uk/assets/documents/Podcast-transcripts/How-can-organisations-support-those-living-with-sickle-cell-1.docx Marie: Welcome to Behind the Genes. Natasha: I think the fact is that people do want to hear from patients, and they do understand that actually you need the patient’s voice in order to make things better, and not just be in a room where you’ve got all board members that think, “Okay, this is what is good for the patient.” No, actually, they’ve got the patients there to help support that voice, and saying, “Well actually, this is the reality,” rather than what you think might be the reality. Marie: My name is Marie Nugent and I’m the community manager for diverse data at Genomics England. I’ll be co-hosting today’s special patient takeover episode of Behind the Genes with Natasha Gordon-Douglas, who is a member of our sickle cell patient voice group. On this episode, we’re going to be speaking to two people who are also part of our patient voice group, Oleander Agbetu and Jayson Kupoluyi. Today we’ll be discussing what it’s like to live with sickle cell, and how organisations who wish to engage with patients need to be considerate of what is going on in people’s lives, and what good advocacy and support for patients who want to be involved in research looks like. If you enjoy today’s episode, we would love your support. Please like and share, and rate us on wherever you listen to your podcasts. Welcome everyone, thank you very much for your time today to talk about the patient involvement and engagement work we’ve been doing as part of our sickle cell and genomics programme at Genomics England. My name’s Marie, I’m the community manager for the diverse data initiative, and I am really involved in doing the sickle cell engagement work. I’m going to pass straight to Natasha now, who’s going to be my lovely co-host for this podcast. So, over to you, Natasha. Natasha: Thank you, Marie. I’m Natasha. I would say my background is nothing to do with the medical side. My background is in marketing and the corporate world. That’s how actually I got introduced by John James, because I actually got him into our workplace to do a podcast about sickle cell. So, you know, just – I’m working in an environment, which obviously – it’s about people understanding about my illness, so I actually got him in speaking, and then he mentioned about a project, “Oh, you might be interested in this.” So, that was kind of the introduction I got from John James. But as I said, doing patient work and engagement stuff was completely new to me, so this is my – I’m a rookie, I should say. But I feel like now after the two years, I know now, I understand [laughter]. But yeah, that’s kind of a quick background. And how I got introduced to Marie is from John James at the Sickle Cell Society. Marie: Great, thank you, Natasha. So, coming straight to you now, Oleander, I think it’s a bit different for you. So, you joined this particular group not too long ago, but from what I know, you’ve been doing this kind of advocacy work and engagement work for quite a while. So, tell us a bit about yourself. Oleander: Well, I’m a parent/carer of a teenager, young man with sickle ...
