Threads of Discovery – Seeking lived experience with cervical cancer

We will be hosting an in-person introductory meeting on Wednesday 22nd April for lived experience partners and researchers. Find out more below.

Cervical cancer is highest among women with no history of screening. Barriers may include fear of a vaginal speculum exam, stigma around cancer/sexual health, and low perceived risk/awareness of how to access screening. Offering HPV vaccine at the time of cervical cancer screening may reduce the need for frequent screening because vaccination lowers the risk of new infections.
This research aims to evaluate the acceptability of a combined HPV vaccine and screening among under-screened women, by assessing knowledge, attitudes, perceived barriers, and willingness to accept.

This communication is part of a project funded by UCD STEM Challenge Fund called  “Threads of Discovery: Weaving Patients into Biomedical Research” driven by the Patient Voice in Health Research network in UCD Conway Institute. As part of this initiative, we are looking for partners with a lived experience of different disease areas to collaborate with researchers within UCD Conway Institute.

We will be hosting an introductory meeting on Wednesday 22nd April for lived experience partners and researchers. This will be in person, and will be a day to get to know each other, to learn a bit about public and patient involvement (PPI), to set expectations, and to have a chat.

We hope through this initiative that long-term partnerships will be established. However, if at the end of the day you think this isn’t for you, that is absolutely fine. You won’t be locked into something you don’t want to be involved in! This is all exploratory.