Our first meeting with Tom provided us with a lot of the more specific medical detail that we required, this reliably answered questions which we had previously found a lot of conflicting information on.
Tom's first piece of advice to us was to start at the beginning with our target market, something we had already considered and were able to discuss further. We confirmed that our main target market was ages 30-70, with the peak age being 55. He agreed with our previous assumption (backed up by research into Facebook user data) that Facebook was not the correct social platform with which to reach the audience in question. We considered that due to low levels of 'internet-savy' individuals in our target audience, they may need directing straight to any internet based information by use of tangible signposting with which they are more familiar.
Secondly we considered that part of our task was to raise awareness amongst primary care professionals, and Tom was able to offer excellent input as to which platforms would provide us with the best audience. Suggestions in this area included:
- Speciality Mailing Lists - Many health care professionals subscribe to information feeds sent out by medical institutions, therefore there could be benefit contained in approaching medical schools and requesting that they promote sarcoma awareness within related feeds. This provides direct access to the mailbox of healthcare professionals, also they would be less likely to view the information as advertising or junk mail as it is something that they have personally subscribed to, and are likely to read.
-Direct contact - We discussed a previous Sarcoma awareness project which had sent golf balls directly to GPs in order to encourage them to look more more sceptically at patients presenting 'lumps'. The project urged GPs to consider lumps while they are still of a smaller size, as removal at this point is a lot less disabling to a patient. Tom also mentioned that the larger a lump became, the faster it was spreading, meaning early diagnosis is especially prevalent.
The discussion then moved towards the average size at the time of diagnosis, although the general rule amongst GPs is to refer a lump over the size of 5cms (in order to maintain balance between early diagnosis and time wasting in a time/resource limited NHS) the average size of a lump at diagnosis was 50% bigger than a tin of baked beans. By the time the lump is at the size of a tin of beans it is already well developed, and therefore more likely to spread, with Sarcomas having a tendency to spread to the lungs.
One of the main issues with raising awareness is the many different types of sarcoma, of which there are around 100. Sarcomas also have varying 'grades' in different patients and can be slow growing or fast and malignant, making it difficult to provide precise definitions for this rare and extremely diverse type of tumour. Another factor effecting referral rates is that lumps are relatively common amongst the target age group, and roughly 99/100 times they turn out to be benign. The issue seems to lie with convincing people that it really is better to be safe than sorry, in an area where they seem to have fairly good odds.
Moving on to the number of people who are affected by this disease, there are around 1500 cases diagnosed per year. This looks like rather a small number when compared to more common cancers, however with a survival rate of 60% and early diagnosis being so key to improving the survival rate, increased awareness would go a long way to saving many lives. It is also worth mentioning that 'survival' figures include anyone who has lived 5 years after their diagnosis, and does not mean complete long term recovery.
All of the above points considered, we came to the conclusion that our main point to be made centred around the progressive size increase of suspicious lumps, and at what point people would start to be concerned. We decided that the best way of conveying size to our target audience was to use everyday items that people could relate to (such as the golf ball or the tin of beans), placed in everyday situations, which people could see them selves in. A common delay in diagnosis of sarcomas is that they are mistaken for sporting injuries, therefore one of the relatable scenarios we portray is likely to be sports based. Current ideas for slogans follow along the lines of; 'When would you start to worry', 'Would you risk it', and 'Do you fancy your chances?'. All of these fit well with the potential sports scenario that has been previously discussed. They play on the gambling/chance element, and could possibly lead to the inclusion of a 'betting shop' scenario in the video footage we create.
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