Blood cancer exhibition launches in the West Country
It's hoped to get more people talking about the most common symptoms of the rare disease
Last updated 5th May 2024
A pop up art exhibition's arrived in Bristol hoping to raise more awareness of the symptoms of rare blood cancer.A pop up
It's part of GenesisCare marking its 10th year providing cancer care to the community.
The show will be hosted at the specialist outpatient centre for oncology and radiotherapy, located at 300 Park Avenue, Aztec West, for the public to see until mid-June.
The cancer care centre will also open its doors to the wider community in an Open Day next weekend, on Saturday 11th May from 9:00am-12:30pm, so that people can meet staff and clinician teams who will be available to answer any questions.
Katie Price, Centre Leader at GenesisCare in Bristol says; “We’re very proud to have been providing world-class cancer care in Bristol for the last ten years and we’re excited to be able to celebrate the occasion by welcoming the community to visit the centre and the pop-up art installation.
“We’re particularly excited to be hosting the MPN art exhibition*, it’s so important for patients to feel seen and hopefully this will generate awareness of the condition and its many symptoms as well as empathy for those suffering with the disease. We’re proud to have expert clinicians and care teams here in Bristol to treat patients suffering with the disease and we’re passionate about helping to raise awareness around these rare blood cancers.”
“We also wanted to use our ten-year celebration as an opportunity to invite the wider community inside our centre. There is a lot of fear and stigma around cancer and that can often lead people to ignore symptoms – yet early diagnosis is so important and saves lives. We hope that by opening our doors on Saturday 11th May we can help encourage people to talk to our expert team. We’re looking forward to seeing you!”
MPN patient Christine Hamilton, age 63 from Bristol says: “As someone living with MPN and being treated at GenesisCare in Bristol, I was thrilled to hear the MPN art installation was coming to my hometown to raise much needed awareness. I’m really pleased Bristol based artist Spike designed number 10, which highlights the symptom of night sweats, as that’s something I really struggled with before my diagnosis and treatment. Whilst debilitating, it’s a symptom that’s easily ignored or assumed unimportant.”
“Living with MPN is a lifelong challenge, but the team at GenesisCare at Bristol have given me the best treatment and care possible as well as unwavering supported since my diagnosis three years ago. Knowledge is power and I really hope the art installation encourages people to take notice of any symptoms or bodily changes, no matter how small and to get it checked out early.”
Local Bristol artist Spike Clark, one of five artists across the UK selected to collaborate on this unique installation says: “I was thrilled to be part of such a fantastic project. In the past I’ve worked on art to highlight specific topics but never anything health related, so this was a really interesting project for me. I’d never heard of MPNs, which is exactly why it is so important we raise awareness of them!”
Dr Priyanka Mehta, Consultant haematologist at GenesisCare Bristol has over 10 years’ experience in benign, malignant and laboratory haematology and is an expert in myeloid cancers: “It’s fantastic to see that GenesisCare in Bristol is hosting the MPN art installation and taking an active role to shine a spotlight on diseases such as MPN. Raising awareness of the symptoms is vital as it’s common for symptoms of MPN to go unnoticed or be dismissed as they can often be non-specific things such as fatigue or night sweats; but it’s very important that anyone with persistent symptoms or symptoms that cannot be explained gets checked. A simple blood test is often all it takes.”
Being diagnosed early can often have a significant impact for patients. GenesisCare provides patients with individualised therapies based on their needs to give them the best outcomes”