In May we welcomed Gemma Fay’s parents and three of her friends to Barts Cancer Institute for a lab tour organised by Rebecca Drake. Gemma took part in Radiation Reveal and sadly died last year. Her friends and family were keen to attend a similar lab tour to the one Gemma and other members of the group did in May 2022. Sam Terry, Sophie Langdon, Lisa Whittaker and Kebs Hodivaka-Dilke also attended the lab tour. It was an emotional day but an important thing to do and lovely to spend time together. After some talks about CRUK RadNet City of London, PPIE and Rebecca’s research we had a tour of the labs and finished with a lovely lunch.
A week later we were pleased to catch up with Rachel and Stuart Fay again at Oncology Professional Care. A group of us were invited by hosts of the award-winning oncology podcast RadChat to take part in a panel discussion in the RadChat Radiotherapy Theatre before Rachel ended the day by talking about Gemma. The panel session included Rebecca Drake, Lisa Whittaker, Young Adults Holly Masters and Sophie Lambert and Sam Terry. It was a great discussion, Holly and Sophie shared their experiences of being diagnosed with cancer and having radiotherapy. They also shared their reasons for taking part in Radiation Reveal. Sam and Rebecca spoke about their research and why they believe patient and public involvement and engagement is so important. Rachel gave a beautiful tribute to Gemma with lovely photos and music, everyone in the audience was extremely touched by her words.
