Cancer World Newsletter - Me and my cancer: the power of a well told personal story

Do personal emotions and experiences have any role to play in conveying information about cancer, cancer treatments and trials? The European School of Oncology gave its answer when it awarded a Best Cancer Reporter Award special commendation to the Daily Telegraph's Cassandra Jardine, who had run a series of features pieces documenting aspects of her journey as she went through treatment for a lung cancer that eventually killed her. In this Best Reporter article, Cancer World's Simon Crompton reviews Cassandra's reporting and looks at the power and the pitfalls of these personalised stories. What do you think? Do personal accounts inevitably compromise the accuracy, objectivity and balance that is required in conveying medical and scientific information? Do patient-journalists like Cassandra convey important messages to audiences doctors and researchers can never hope to reach – and perhaps also offer doctors and researchers insights into the patient perspective that they need to hear? You can read the article here.