Unseen Unheard

On 10th July 2025 there was a screening of the award winning Unseen Unheard, a play about Black Women's experience of breast cancer in the UK, in Wellingborough African Caribbean Association.

There were around 75 people there; healthcare professionals, people with lived experience of breast cancer, members from the local black community and people with an interest in tackling health inequities. 

I would just like to explain a little bit about how and why this came about............

....... in Wellingborough of all places!

I am the Macmillan Information Outreach Project Manager for Northamptonshire and what that basically means is that we have funding for a 2 year project to look at ways we can improve access to Cancer Information and Support in Northamptonshire. I have worked very closely with the Macmillan Information Centres at Northampton and Kettering and we have had a patient led steering group as well. One of the aspects of the project was to connect with marginalised and underrepresented groups.

Mavis Mundirwa, Founder of The Power of the Mind Network, has been full of enthusiasm for me to come along to the groups she runs and talk about the project and survey. Karen Boon, our Macmillan Breast Cancer Nurse, has also been along and do a talk about what signs and symptoms to look out for.

In July 2024, I went to see Unseen Unheard in Birmingham and it was so emotive and powerful that I felt passionately that we should try and get a screening in Northamptonshire. After months of emailing people (or pestering), Andy and Tariro from Gilead Sciences got in touch and it started to seem like it might actually happen. I got Mavis involved from the beginning as I felt that it would be best for her to be involved in the planning and hosting.

And... well ..... it actually happened, a year from me seeing the play to then being asked to introduce it.... persistence and bit of naïve optimism paid off.

The screening was followed by a gripping panel discussion

Panel Host:

Mavis Mundirwa – Founder of the Power of the Mind Network, Social Inclusion Advocate and Award Winner

Panel Members:

Samantha Oxley-Brown – Northamptonshire based woman with lived experience of Breast Cancer

Karen Boon - Macmillan secondary breast cancer nurse at Northampton General Hospital

Dr Ayman Ramadan – Consultant Clinical Oncologist for Breast & Lymphoma

A huge thank you to the panel members and to those that attended, I am sure the play will have moved you all and it may have validated many of your experiences but for some it will have been eye opening. It was an opportunity to ask ....... what can I do differently to tackle inequities?

If you are interested in hosting a screening of the play, get in touch with Gilead Sciences public_affairs@gilead.com

Sally doing an introduction talk at Unseen Unheard in July 2025