Palliative Care Voices is an independent, international palliative care patient and carer advocacy network, enabling those with lived experience to get involved in palliative care advocacy on an international, national, regional and local level. It provides them with the platform and support to use their experiences constructively and have their voices heard.
I founded Palliative Care Voices in November 2017. It is based out of a Facebook Group, https://www.facebook.com/groups/PalliativeCareVoices, where members can request to join after answering three questions. It also has a website currently in development, https://palliativecarevoices.org.
Achievements of the group include the words of people with lived experience going to the World Health Assembly Executive Board (including my own), a person with lived experience (Sharon Thompson) going to the World Health Assembly and meeting Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, a member (Huyaam Samuels) speaking at the ICPCN (International Children’s Palliative Care Network) Conference in 2018, appearing on the BBC World Service programme “The Why Factor” on living with pain, myself having a personal meeting and friendship with the Director-General of the World Health Organisation, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Lucy appearing in other media, and other work.
