Ovarian Cancer Awareness

Student nurse finds working with cancer patients to be rewarding

MAIA NODEN interviews a nursing student about her experience of working on oncology wards and finds there is warm among the heartache

March is Ovarian cancer awareness month, where there is plenty of opportunity to fundraise and spread awareness about the disease.

Georgia Musgrave, a student nurse from Chester, said: “If it’s terminal and they have got a prognosis of only a short period of time and they have got children, or they are only quite young or even if people ae a bit older or have got family, it is never a nice thing to be diagnosed with, especially when they don’t know what the future will hold.”

The trainee nurse has been working in various hospitals in Manchester as she completes her final year at the University of Manchester.

Georgia, 21, has found whilst working on her placements that often the disease is caught late. She explained: “I think because symptoms of ovarian cancer are put down to other things, for example if you have swelling, you’re bloated, you could put it down to your period, your menstrual cycle, stuff like that.

“It can be put it down to different foods, some people bloat when they have eaten different foods, so I think symptoms can be put off as other things which is why people might not catch it that early as people might just think it is something else so they might just not get it checked out.” 21-year-old student believes there is not enough awareness on the symptoms of Ovarian cancer as there is for other cancers as she says: “If you are having irregular periods, if you are on contraception, you might put it down to that, so I think people from my experience who have had ovarian cancer have caught it late that’s why. They weren’t aware of the symptoms, they isn’t enough awareness around the symptoms as there is for like breast cancer and stuff like that.

Ovarian cancer is more common with people over the age of 45. The symptoms can be very mild in the early stages especially, as Georgia said: “For people are age it is quite hard because a lot of the symptoms are vaginal bleeding, abnormal menstrual cycles, but there are so many other things you could put that down to like contraception or if you get pregnant.

Most cancer symptoms in the early stages are symptomless. Some symptoms that have been noted from a more advanced stage are: • Bloating • Tiredness • Abnormal bleeding • Shortness of breath • Weight loss

The student nurse added: “A lot of things can change menstrual cycles like stress and cause abnormal bleeding. Swelling and bloating is another one, but obviously that can be said it can be put down to other things. Weight loss is the main one, but that is a symptom of any cancer, it could be a symptom of breast cancer, it could be a symptom of Leukaemia. I think it is always important to keep an eye on it as a woman, it is so hard.”

Georgia urges people to get checked out, even if it is just a mild symptom to catch it early. She has worked on many placements now and has found that as a nurse she ‘always wants to make people feel better.’

She has found that a lot of the time it is very rewarding. She said: “When patients are having treatment, and obviously if they react well to it or get the all-clear, it is very rewarding in that sense. A lot of the time it is a positive environment for a lot of patients because they are so grateful, they are getting treatment, some people don’t even have the chance of getting treatment because they don’t catch it early, or the treatment might not even benefit them.”

Georgia will be one of the many NHS staff members as she has got a job as a critical care nurse in a cancer department starting after her graduation.

If you want to make a difference and donate to any Ovarian cancer, visit the links below:

The Rutherford, Cancer Centre North West, Photo by: Maia Noden

Georgia Musgrave, student nurse, Photo by: Georgia Musgrave

https://donate.thebiggive.org.uk/ campaign/a0569000029luyDAAQ

https://www.ovacome.org.uk/donate/support-ovacomes-work

Focal Studios use projection mapping to create their work. Photo Credit: Focal Studios

Lighting up the city in lockdown remembrance

Culture Liverpool have launched a new project called ‘Visible Virals’ to showcase the city’s community togetherness during COVID-19. DANNIELLE JONES reports

‘We thought this project was lovely because it was one celebrating the community coming together ’

With the second anniversary of the UK’s first lockdown approaching, Culture Liverpool have launched a new project called ‘Visible Virals’ to showcase the efforts of the city’s local communities and their resilience during the pandemic.

The project puts people in the shoes of Liverpool residents and their experiences during 2020 using a combination of colour, light, and art, all of which were designed and created by three local businesses: Focal Studios, DefProc Engineering and Apt Creative.

From 7pm every day this week, various projections will illuminate some of Liverpool’s most iconic buildings with messages of local people to kick off the project.

Jessica Leigh Windell, co-founder of Focal Studios, spoke to MNL about the project and the importance of telling local stories.

She said: “We are the projection mapping partners on the project and as a team, we collectively discussed the idea and the concept and worked with Culture Liverpool and Public Health England to define the best way to interact with the community and then we were kind of given the role of doing the projection mapping events to showcase Apt Creative’s graphic designs.”

Photo Credit: Culture Liverpool

“We also did south and north Liverpool events which included lots of community engagement events where we did projections purely for the south and north because often a lot of culture is quite central in Liverpool, and we wanted to make sure that we got out into the other communities and gave back to the people who have been contributing.”

Focal Studios, which opened in November 2019 and is located in the Baltic Triangle, has previously worked on large events across the city including the Chinese New Year city celebrations for the council in January.

Jessica explained more about the studio’s work and why they got involved in the project adding: “As a company we’re quite passionate about democratising technology and allowing everyone to have access to technology and to experience culture, no matter what format it is in, and we thought this project was lovely because it was one celebrating the community coming together.

“When we went out to do the focus groups and we were chatting to people, it was a really nice celebration of Liverpool as a community and how we all came together in a time of real need and to be able to use our skillset and technology to give back and celebrate these people who are just everyday people we thought was really lovely.”

The project will accumulate on the second anniversary of lockdown one with the launch of an interactive game from DefProc Engineering.

The company are based in Liverpool Science Park and were tasked with designing the game and its features, due to be projected on the side of the Museum of Liverpool.

Patrick Fenner, head engineer and co-founder of DefProc, told MNL about the production of the game and their role in the project, saying: “We are responsible for the game as part of the last event on the 23rd of March, which means that we have built the software side of the game itself, the hardware of the controller, so we have a specific non-contact control for people to play with, and also the enclosure that people stand inside to play the game.”

DefProc have worked on similar projects and previously collaborated with Focal Studios for a project called ‘LUX’, held at St Luke’s Bombed Out Church during Liverpool LightNight 2021.

The interactive game is available to play for free from March 23 and anyone in the city can get involved and have a go. but people are encouraged

Photo Credit: Focal Studios

to go down and queue up as it will only be there for one day.

Patrick explained more about what the game involves and how it works adding: “The game follows the main themes of Visible Virals, where it’s about the community and the coming together that happened as part of the city’s community responses to COVID-19, so as part of the game, you control one of two characters and you move around the game to collect and distribute resources similar to what people were doing during COVID like a kind of ‘pickup and deliver’.

“Also, you’ve got different messages around the game that you can collect and can read about to see how different people in the community responded as part of the wider project to gain an understanding of how other people in lots of different positions were able to respond and help each other over the last two years.”

The game can be played by all age groups and two people play together, with minimum interaction and difficulty required to make it easy for everyone.

For more information about the overall project, visit Culture Liverpool’s website, searching ‘Visible Virals’.

The Illuminations can be seen across the city throughut this week. Photo Credit: Dannielle Jones