Sanofi Patient Group Bursary winners announced

Sanofi is delighted to announce the winners of the Sanofi Patient Group Bursary scheme – Breakthrough Breast Cancer and the Multiple Sclerosis (MS) Trust will each receive a grant of £25,000 to support their initiatives, both judged to be exemplary in their respective fields. The competition was fierce, and over 40 proposals were submitted, but the two winning initiatives stood head and shoulders above the rest.

In partnership with Breast Cancer Care, Breakthrough Breast Cancer propose to carry out a scoping project for the development of a ‘Service Pledge for Secondary Breast Cancer’. The Service Pledge allows patients and healthcare professionals to review their services. The result is a promise from hospitals about the standard of care patients can expect from them, as well as how they will address the key areas identified for improvement. This fantastic proposal will empower patients to be fully engaged and involved in their care, and will enable health care professionals to actively improve the services available.

Maggie Alexander, Director of Policy, Education and Influencing, Breakthrough Breast Cancer, said:

“We are thrilled to be receiving this grant from Sanofi – it will help us to realise our goal of extending our award winning Service Pledge initiative to secondary breast cancer treatment. The grant will be an invaluable first step in helping diagnosed individuals and their families receive the best treatment possible”

Jane Hatfield, Director of Policy, Research and Planning, Breast Cancer Care, said:

“Breast Cancer Care are delighted to be working in partnership with Breakthrough Breast Cancer to explore the potential for a Secondary Breast Cancer Service Pledge to improve standards of care for the many thousands of people living with a secondary (metastatic) diagnosis. Breast Cancer Care has long campaigned with and on behalf of this group of patients, who often experience poor coordination of their care, and this grant from Sanofi is a very welcome boost to improving this situation.”

The Multiple Sclerosis (MS) Trust winning initiative will give people living with MS help to remain in, or return to, work. The bursary funding will be used to develop a web-based toolkit to help patients understand their rights in the workplace, recognise their own barriers to work and suggest ways to overcome them, as well as present strategies to help them discuss their condition with their health professionals and employers. The project will be informed by two web-based chat rooms specifically on the subject of work and forms part of a wider MS Trust campaign around work and MS.

Pam Macfarlane, Chief Executive of the MS Trust, said:

Work is often a vital part of a person’s sense of identity and wellbeing. We’re delighted that this grant from Sanofi will let us deliver this much needed information for people with MS to enable them to talk in detail with their employers. With the ongoing recession and upcoming changes to benefits we are receiving more and more calls from people with MS who are worried about their jobs. Our aim is simply to make sure that anyone with MS is armed with all the information they need to give them the best chance of staying in work as long as they want.

The panel of expert judges chaired by Sanofi General Manager, Steve Oldfield, and including the Liberal Democrat Peer and former Chief Executive of the King’s Fund, Baroness Julia Neuberger DBE, as well as Baroness Jill Pitkeathley OBE, Chair of the Council of Healthcare Regulatory Excellence (CHRE), were particularly impressed with the winning proposals’ focus on patient empowerment.

Baroness Julia Neuberger, Liberal Democrat Peer and former Chief Executive of the King’s Fund, said:

“The Sanofi Patient Group Bursary is a welcome, and much needed, initiative that will provide a major boost to patient groups at a time when they are facing a particularly challenging environment. Along with my fellow judges, I was very impressed with the number of submissions received as well as their quality but it was the proposals from Breakthrough Breast Cancer – in collaboration with Breast Cancer Care – and the MS Trust that really shone. The MS Trust proposal stood out to us for its ambition and impact. It is an important project that I believe will benefit not just patients, but employers too. The strength of the Breakthrough proposal is that it addresses a real unmet need in seeking to improve services for patients with secondary breast cancer.”

Sanofi launched the Patient Group Bursary in March 2011 and is thrilled with the response received from the patient group community.

Steve Oldfield, Sanofi UK General Manager said:

“The Patient Group Bursary is an important part of our efforts to focus everything we do at Sanofi on the needs of the patient. We are thrilled with the response from the patient group community, and that the initiative has been well received. I am delighted that the first groups to receive the Bursary are Breakthrough Breast Cancer and the MS Trust, who both proposed projects that will have a clear and beneficial impact on patients.”