Thank you to all our research participant volunteers | News

Today is International Volunteer Day and a chance for us to say ‘thank you’ to all the volunteers who have participated in clinical trials at Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trust this year.

To date, almost 800 volunteers have stepped forward to be part of Covid-19 studies taking place at Royal Surrey. These include people diagnosed with the virus as well as volunteers with no known health conditions.

Royal Surrey Covid-19 trials span 10 different studies. Projects include those to improve patient survival and reduce complications, as well as projects focused on increasing knowledge about how the virus affects specific groups such as pregnant women, children, healthcare workers and people who may be genetically more vulnerable to the condition such as black, Asian and ethnic minority communities.

Even though the nation is preparing to roll out the first successful Covid-19 vaccine, important research into treatments continues. Royal Surrey is still opening new urgent public health studies including vaccine trials. Dr John De Vos, Clinical Lead for the Trust’s dedicated Covid-19 ward, said:

“We are still in the middle of a pandemic and our wards continue to be busy. It is imperative that we seek to improve treatment and discover more about how the virus affects vulnerable members of the community. Clinical trials have already had some success and we know, for example, that steroids improve outcomes for patients admitted to hospital with Covid-19. In short, this research has saved lives and it is important that we continue to look for solutions."

Dr Kath McCullough, Divisional Research Lead for Access and Medicine, added:

“Patient volunteers play an essential role in treatment advances. Thank you to everyone who has taken part. Your involvement makes a real difference to the quality of the care the NHS is providing and therefore to patients' lives.”

Our 2020 volunteers have helped with more than just Covid-19

Covid-19 studies are not the only studies patient volunteers have taken part in this year. Royal Surrey is a large referral centre for cancer patients and vital clinical trials providing novel treatments have continued despite the pandemic. Volunteers on these trials are receiving new treatments that have the potential to improve survival and recovery of people with their condition in the future.

Marie-Claire Flavin, Radiation Oncology Research Team Leader, said:

“We are enormously thankful to the patients who continued to participate in trials that were able to run throughout the pandemic. These are patients with very serious health conditions, many of who are taking part in novel cancer treatments and unexpectedly needed to try new, socially distanced ways of continuing their cancer care. They have been supportive and kept their passion to be part of progressing research and improving treatments for their conditions, despite this being an incredibly challenging year.

“People choose to join these trials because they have the chance of benefiting from breakthrough treatment, but also for entirely altruistic reasons. They want to help other people like them. Medical staff have been rightly recognised as heroes throughout the pandemic, but these volunteers are heroes too. Their commitment and bravery amazes me every day.”

To find out more about becoming a patient volunteer visit the National Institute of Health Research Be Part Of Research website or email the Royal Surrey Research and Development Team