Pan-London Cancer Nursing Conference a Resounding Success

What an incredible turn out at the pan London cancer nursing conference! Around 250 healthcare professionals, involved in delivering high quality cancer care to London residents, met to share experiences, learn about new initiatives, and talk about best practice techniques - all helping to improve local services even more.

This event, which followed the success of the Pan-London AHP Conference delivered in October 2025, was designed to make the ambitions of the Cancer Plan tangible for the nurses delivering care on the ground, focusing on practical application and future service delivery.

A key objective was to embed the ACCEND Framework throughout the day. Delegates had access to a dedicated Macmillan ACCEND stand, providing opportunities to discuss career development and workforce pathways with ACCEND experts. ACCEND principles were also reflected across presentations and breakout sessions covering leadership, education, clinical practice and research.

National and regional leaders

The day was skilfully chaired by Jemma O'Reilly, Lead Cancer Nurse for North Central London Cancer Alliance. David Fitzgerald, NHS England Cancer Programme Director, led the opening session providing essential information on the national cancer plan. He was followed by Dr Siobhán O'Connor from King's College London speaking on sustainable AI and Dr Tootie Bueser presenting on genomics.

Mark Groves, Principal Clinical Psychologist, gave an impressive and interactive session on the Compassionate Mind: Working in a threat-filled system, encouraging nursing to practice self-compassion to enable compassion for your patients.

There were also breakout sessions, poster presentations detailing some of the amazing work taking place locally, and an important session on addressing health inequalities for people with cancer and mental health conditions.  The day was finished in style by the incredible Karen Bonner MBE, Regional Chief Nurse for London.

Jess Hopewell, Junior Colorectal CNS at Homerton Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, said:

“I found the whole day to be interesting and a great learning opportunity. It was also lovely to meet other CNS teams that I may have emailed but not met face-to-face. I specifically found the presentation focusing on cancer inequalities and mental health to be thought provoking and I hope for it to inform my own practice in the future.

It was also excellent to hear about caring for our own mental health in such an articulate way, it made me think, not about being more resilient, but how I react to the system around me and care for myself whilst working in a difficult situation. Another valuable aspect of the day was hearing so much about AI technology and how we can safely integrate it into our work in order to optimise our time.”

Sharing best practice

The programme provided the opportunity for sharing posters to enable visibility of innovations and best practice and to share these with others to consider further adoptions.

Luzia Sanda, Macmillan Personalised Cancer Care Nurse, Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust, said:

“I had a great time at the London nursing conference; it was a good opportunity to network with other nurses and organisations. I enjoyed the breakout sessions on leadership and genomics. Thank you to the organisers for providing the opportunity to present my poster!

Feedback was highly positive, with delegates particularly valuing the relevance of the topics, quality of speakers and opportunities to network with peers from across London. Attendees expressed strong interest in further development opportunities relating to AI, genomics, leadership, workforce planning and practical implementation of ACCEND.

Bing Smith, Lead Lung Clinical Nurse Specialist, Barts Health NHS Trust, said:

“A colleague and I attended the London Cancer Nurse Conference for the first time, and winning third place in the poster competition was the icing on the cake. It was a fantastic opportunity to learn, network with cancer nurses from across London, and share our work.

Attending the conference further enhanced my understanding of the National Cancer Plan for England, provided valuable insights into how cancer nurses in other specialties integrate research into clinical practice, and helped me identify my own knowledge gaps regarding the use of artificial intelligence in cancer care.

I would like to thank the organisers and everyone involved for providing such a valuable opportunity and delivering an excellent conference.”

Increasing awareness of ACCEND

Additionally, Nurses were given an ‘ACCEND’ badge and asked to wear these at work to give ACCEND more visibility and generate discussions amongst staff in an aim to socialise the concept of ACCEND.

The insights gained will directly inform future workforce development activity across London, ensuring that future programmes continue to support the evolving needs of the cancer nursing workforce while strengthening implementation of ACCEND and the wider Cancer Plan ambitions.

Pan London ACCEND Website

The four Cancer Alliances in London are developing a website to bring together tools for various stakeholders to implement ACCEND. This ranges from Workforce Experts, Lead AHPs and Nurses to Healthcare Support Workers and Nurses and AHPs. The aim is to have bitesize, accessible content that enables individuals, managers and organisations to better understand ACCEND and embed it in their practice and services.

For more information

Visit the cancer alliance’s Workforce Strategy pages: https://www.nelcanceralliance.nhs.uk/our-workforce-strategy

Find out more about ACCEND: https://www.nelcanceralliance.nhs.uk/accend