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Bami Adenipekun: How being impacted by breast cancer for over 3 decades shapes the work that I do

Bami Adenipekun/LinkedIn

Nov 13, 2024, 16:39

Bami Adenipekun: How being impacted by breast cancer for over 3 decades shapes the work that I do

Bami Adenipekun, Non Executive Member at Llais Cymru and Associate Consultant at Practice Solutions, shared a post on LinkedIn:

“Last week, I had the privilege of delivering a keynote at the Macmillan Professionals Conference.
I spoke about how my life experiences of being impacted by breast cancer for over 3 decades shapes the work that I do.

Here are some of the points I shared:

– On every measure, cancer patients from ethnic minority backgrounds report worse outcomes and experiences. We can do so much better by tackling some of the underlying reasons both within the communities and the healthcare system as a whole.

– Secrecy, stigma and shame are killers, they stop people from presenting to the doctors on time thereby leading to poorer prognosis especially in ethnic minority communities. Raising cancer awareness is an ongoing journey, I play my part as much as I can.

– Within the healthcare system, there are issues of biases and even discrimination that can no longer be ignored. I talked about what it’s like as a black woman to be routinely failed in pain management – hard.

– I appealed to healthcare professionals to be mindful about sharing power with the patients they see, taking the time to find out what matters to them.

– My core message was about the power of representation be it in media campaigns or the availability of suitable health aids like prosthetics, arm sleeves etc.
Everyone wants to feel seen, heard and know that they belong.

I also spoke about the importance of highlighting more of the work that Macmillan Cancer Support does with under-represented communities.

It was heart warming to hear from professionals doing amazing work across the UK to make things better for cancer patients. The Awards highlighted some of the innovative projects making huge difference.

It was a delight to listen to the keynote by the inspiring Erin Kennedy MBE . Her determination and resilience in training through cancer treatment to win gold at the Paralympics afterwards – simply mind-blowing. She generously allowed us to take photos with her gold medals. It was exciting to hold one in my hands.

It was also great to listen to the opening address of the Chief Executive Gemma Peters as she spoke on the importance of hope whilst acknowledging the challenges ahead with increasing cancer incidence rates and the NHS now under immense pressure to meet demands.
This underscores the vital role played by cancer charities like Macmillan without whom patients like me would find life after diagnosis more challenging.

On behalf of all cancer patients, I say a huge thank you to Macmillan staff and volunteers.”