BRIDGE BREAST CANCER
PROBLEM
More than 55,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer in UK each year, increasing to more than 71,000 by 2035.
82% of women experience symptoms of PTSD after treatment for primary breast cancer.
1/3 women struggle with anxiety for the first time in their lives at this point.
The incidence of breast cancer is increasing and more people are surviving, so wellbeing in survivorship is a growing issue.
SOLUTION
A structured self-reflection journal which increases people’s understanding of their psychological adjustment, gives them tools to process this, and encourages them to communicate how they feel with others.
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I am now working with one of the founder of Ticking Off Breast Cancer to deliver workshops based around the journal for groups of women who have recently finished treatment.
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I am also working with the UK's leading breast cancer charity, Breast Cancer Now, to adapt the journal to run alongside their in-person group support sessions.
"For something I didn’t think I needed, it made me realise how much mentally I had hidden. The journal gave me time to reflect on my mental health for the first time. It gave me the time to actually think about it. It's helped me so much. It's taken the pressure off. I don’t have those wobbles any more."
Jenny, Bridge journal user
IMPACT
100% of women who tested the journal said they would recommend the journal to someone going through the same experience.
100% said the journal enabled them to reflect on the impact that breast cancer may have had on them.
100% said the journal increased their understanding of the psychological impact that breast cancer can have on women after hospital treatment.
100% said the journal influenced how they speak to others about how they feel.
MY ROLE
This was my design research project for my Healthcare & Design MSc, run through Imperial College and the Royal College of Art. I developed and ran the project from beginning to end, codesigning the solution with a group of women who had used their own self-reflection tools during their own psychological adjustment after breast cancer.
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Hear more about the development of the journal in a podcast with Claudia and one of the codesign group members, founder of Black Women Rising Leanne Pero.