Case study: If people knew more, they would do more - Mike's Research Story

As a patient at the Haywood Hospital, part of Midlands Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, Mike Brooks from Alsager was invited by a nurse to become part of the Haywood Foundation, a charity dedicated to helping local people with arthritis and related conditions - and from there became involved in clinical research at the Trust. He is now its very first Physical Health Peer Support Worker.

Over the years he has been involved in many different studies such as

MIDAS, which gathers data for local population musculoskeletal health intelligence in North Staffordshire & Stoke-on-Trent.

ICE-PAC -  Investigating the Covid Experience of People with Arthritis and their Care. Mike was Public Co-author for this study which means he was part of the team establishing the funding application, determining methodologies and protocols and he will be an anonymous participant if required.

Mike, aged 72 says: ‘It’s fantastic to be part of research in this way. Patient & Public Involvement and Engagement has an acronym - PPIE, but I always say it stands for Please Participate, It’s Exciting!

‘By doing this I feel I am helping to shape the future and anyone who is offered the chance should grab it with both hands, whatever is involved - from helping to design trials to actively participating’.

Mike’s background is in industrial chemistry and he says he has always been curious. ‘I’m being enabled to empower the patient and break the barriers between service users and providers. You meet and mix with people who stimulate you and give you ideas - my friends and family say I seem a lot younger and more vibrant since taking it on.

‘I’ve always been an advocate of the idea that people would do more if they knew more.’

Hear more from Mike in this video.

Interested in signing up to research? Find out more at www.bepartofresearch.nihr.ac.uk.

For Covid-19 vaccine trials, visit www.nhs.uk/researchcontact

Find out more about clinical research in the West Midlands here: www.local.nihr.ac.uk/wmidlands