I worked as a freelance research communications officer with the National Cancer Research Institute for a year from 2017-2018.
During this time, I worked on a variety of communications projects and assignments.
One of the larger projects I worked on was the ‘Living With and Beyond Cancer’ initiative. Part of this project necessitated running a Priority Setting Partnership with the James Lind Alliance. This involved going out to the wider public and health and social care professionals to ask for their views on priority areas for research in living with and beyond cancer.
The NCRI is not a public-facing organisation in the way that other charitable organisations are, and so this was a new challenge. We developed key messages and explanations of the project for these new audiences, and developed social media messaging and images to appeal, and a marketing strategy to reach new audiences and share our messages through other charitable partners.
The project was a success, with nearly 1,500 respondents to the initial survey.
The Living With and Beyond Cancer initiative, its key messages and other information can be found on the NCRI website here.
Jess Smith 