About BRIGHTLIGHT
How can specialist services for teenagers and young adults with cancer add value?
BRIGHTLIGHT_2021 is the overarching name for a new programme of research projects designed to answer the question: Do specialist services for teenagers and young adults add value?
The original five studies were funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) through their Programme Grant for Applied Research funding stream (grant reference RP-PG-1209-10013). These focused on:
- The environments in which care is delivered
- The competencies of healthcare professionals delivering care
- Young people’s experience of care
- The cost of care (to the NHS and also to young people and their families)
- Developing a metric to quantify specialist care.
BRIGHTLIGHT is supported by the National Cancer Research Institute Teenage and Young Adult and Germ Cell Clinical Studies Group (NCRI TYA/GC CSG). The BRIGHTLIGHT office is based at University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (UCLH).
BRIGHTLIGHT was developed by young people for young people
Central to the BRIGHTLIGHT collaboration is the involvement of young people. The Young person’s Advisory Panel (YAP) includes young people who have a previous diagnosis of cancer. Some have been involved from the beginning, when the project was being developed, and others have joined as it has progressed. They play an essential role in advising project coordinators on all aspects of study management.
In the future, BRIGHTLIGHT will expand to include other projects developed directly from the results of these five studies. Young people will continue to be integral in the development and management of this work to ensure our ultimate aim is achieved:
“To make living with cancer more bearable for young people and to ensure they are able to do the things they wanted to do before they had cancer.”
The BRIGHTLIGHT collaboration originally involved clinicians and researchers from London, Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham and Southampton. We have now expanded to collaborate with TYA teams across the UK. If you are interested in being involved in our work or collaborating with us, please get in touch.