An NHS patient is live-tweeting what it's like living with cancer
LONDON -- The UK's National Health Service has launched a new initiative to show the personal stories behind the huge organisation.
The initiative -- which began Monday to coincide with the launch of the NHS' official Twitter account -- will see a different NHS patient or member of staff become curator each week over a three-month period.
Cancer patient Richard Orchard -- who's currently a patient at Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals Trust -- is the first to take over the account.
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Orchard will be sharing his experience of living with and being treated for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma cancer all this week.
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Each curator will report first-hand their daily experiences of the health service.
According to a statement emailed to Mashable, Orchard hopes that sharing his experiences will let fellow cancer patients "know they’re not alone in this".
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The curation pilot has been set up in partnership with Twitter and is designed to shed light on what it means to be a patient in or to work for the NHS.
"This is such a great initiative from the NHS. From patients to paramedics, the people taking control of the account will be sharing powerful stories and experiences that others will be able to relate to and empathise with," Rob Owers, Head of News & Government Partnerships at Twitter UK, said in a statement.
The UK isn't the first account to see members of the public take over official Twitter accounts. The @Sweden Twitter account sees "a different Swede every week" take over the account to talk about life in Sweden. The @Ireland Twitter account is also curated by a new person each week to "further connect Ireland to the world" and vice versa.
So far, Orchard has been sharing his experiences of trying to stay active.
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He's also been talking about trying to ensure he doesn't lose too much weight while undergoing treatment.
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People have been sending get well wishes to Richard and messages of support for the initiative.
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Topics Health Social Good
Rachel Thompson is the Features Editor at Mashable. Rachel's second non-fiction book The Love Fix: Reclaiming Intimacy in a Disconnected World is out now, published by Penguin Random House in Jan. 2025. The Love Fix explores why dating feels so hard right now, why we experience difficult emotions in the realm of love, and how we can change our dating culture for the better.
A leading sex and dating writer in the UK, Rachel has written for GQ, The Guardian, The Sunday Times Style, The Telegraph, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Stylist, ELLE, The i Paper, Refinery29, and many more.
Rachel's first book Rough: How Violence Has Found Its Way Into the Bedroom And What We Can Do About It, a non-fiction investigation into sexual violence was published by Penguin Random House in 2021.
