Video transcript - Jackie's story
Contents
Jackie’s story
Jackie Harrison is a patient with The Christie in Greater Manchester. She is taking part in a clinical trial looking at the effectiveness of a new drug in the treatment of breast cancer.
She says:
I was diagnosed with breast cancer in December 2017 I then underwent surgery in January 2018. Then I had chemotherapy, then I had radiotherapy and at that point, in one of the consultations with the oncologist, I was started on a routine medication for women who have my type of breast cancer. But I was also introduced to the idea, potentially, of a couple of clinical trials that I, again potentially, met the criteria for.
The particular trial I'm on was a randomised trial, so at that point there was a 50% chance of having the medication, 50% chance of not having the medication but being monitored.
I was in the group that had the medication, so at that point I was prescribed the trial drug and it involves me just taking medication twice a day at the same time every day and then starting the quite detailed protocol of monitoring and screening.
The trial was offered at my local hospital which is a satellite. I'm a Christie patient but it's a satellite service of Christie, so the oncology team and the research team are Christie staff but at my local hospital. This meant that I only have a 20 minute journey from home to the clinic where all my monitoring and physical examinations take place.
For me at that time, that was really crucial because I was feeling so tired and was obviously under the weather following such extensive treatment.
My reasons for taking part in the study were twofold. Obviously, on a personal level, there was an opportunity for me to potentially have a treatment that wasn't commonly available, with the potential benefits that that might have for me.
But the other reason, which was just as compelling, was I felt I wanted to give something back. I felt I’d had incredible support and treatment and I was thankful for people who’d been part of clinical trials earlier and therefore I’d had treatment because of them really.
It was just wanting to give something back, I suppose. That altruism was a real - and still is a real –driving reason why I wanted to be part of a clinical trial.