NHS England London hosts special event for regional champions in NHS Excellence Awards

Nikki Poland, Caroline Cook, Angela Wong and Obi Onyiah from the cancer alliance joined a fantastic event with NHS England London to recognise the London regional champions in the NHS Excellence Awards.

North East London Cancer Alliance's Gypsy, Roma and Traveller engagement project was selected as the regional champion in the 'Improving Health Outcomes' category, and this special event was another great opportunity to showcase all the hard work and success of the project.

The team were joined by Karen Bonner MBE, Regional Chief Nurse for London, and Caroline Clarke, NHS London Regional Director, along with fellow champions, judges and colleagues from across the region.

The alliance has been working in partnership with Friends, Families and Travellers, Roma Support Group and North East London Training Hub on this engagement project, which is helping to address persistent inequalities in cancer prevention, screening and early diagnosis experienced by Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities.

Key to the success of this was recruiting and training 13 Health Champions from across Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities.

Nikki Poland, Project Manager for North East London Cancer Alliance, said "This event provided even more recognition of our partnership with Friends, Families and Travellers and Roma Support Group, which is already delivering such positive change to local communities. 

"It shows how powerful a peer-led, community-based approach can be and we look forward to continuing our work in reducing health inequalities."

You can read more about the impact the project is having: https://www.nelcanceralliance.nhs.uk/case-study-gypsy-roma-and-traveller-grt-engagement   

This project is another example of how the cancer alliance is helping to reduce health inequalities across north east London Read about the alliance's Health Inequalities Strategy: https://www.nelcanceralliance.nhs.uk/health-inequalities-strategy