In early 2021, the public engagement team at the Cambridge Stem Cell Institute and our local branch of Parkinson’s UK met patients and researchers to explore their perspectives on research and disease, together.
Three groups formed and met online for virtual writing workshops over several weeks. Facilitated by a poet, the groups explored how poetry could reflect their thoughts, feelings, and memories.
At the end of the project, each group worked together to write a shared poem. Their three group poems were then published alongside illustrations by participant Alison Williams.
Why poetry?
We wanted to find an activity that would be equally accessible for scientific researchers and patients, inviting them to join us on (virtual) common ground to start conversations about research and disease.
Our participants in this project were geographically and scientifically diverse. Five researchers from the University of Cambridge working on stem cell topics took part; two specialised in studies of Parkinson’s disease. Patients from across the UK joined from the networks of Parkinson’s UK.
Some had written poetry before, while others had no creative writing experience since school.
They met and exchanged knowledge and ideas by writing verses together in a series of facilitated online workshops devised by poet Julie Stevens, who lives with multiple sclerosis, and led by David Cain, Lee Nelson and Laura Warner.
