Please note, Cancer Revolution: Science, innovation and hope ended on 27 March 2022. To find out what exhibitions and activities are open today, visit our What’s On section.
Our critically acclaimed world-first exhibition, Cancer Revolution: Science innovation and hope, is filled with personal stories from patients, scientists, clinicians and family members all sharing their experiences of cancer. Now, at this pivotal moment when one in two of us will be diagnosed with cancer in our lifetime, we want to give more people the opportunity to share their stories with us on social media.
Whether you’re a patient, family member or friend, healthcare professional or scientist, we want to hear from you to create a new collection of stories to complement our exhibition.
To get involved, all you need to do is take a picture of an object that represents your experience with cancer and share it with a short explanation with us on Twitter or Instagram using the hashtag #CancerRevolutionStories.
These stories will be collected and collated to help show how cancer affects everyone in different ways and to help us talk more openly about cancer’s impacts, dispel misconceptions and challenge the stigma and silence that can surround the disease.
This digital project builds on the Science Museum Group’s Cancer Collection Project, through which we collected objects that represent people’s personal cancer experiences. Several of these objects and stories are now on display in the exhibition, including Ted Drummond’s ‘Beads of courage’, which represent each part of his treatment for Lymphoblastic Leukaemia, and Judy Warner’s garden fork because gardening was so integral to her recovery from mouth cancer.
Cancer Revolution: Science, innovation and hope, is on at the Science and Industry Museum, Manchester until March 2022. Find out more and book free tickets here.
#CancerRevolutionStories
I’m sharing this for #CancerRevolutionStories
When my mum became so poorly with #Cancer the one thing I could do for her was her nails. She always had nice nails and she took regular visits to the salon. It helped us both in so many ways during a tough time @CR_UK pic.twitter.com/VT2ld2DEtb— Debs Johnson 🐝 (@DebsCook2) January 31, 2022
#CancerRevolutionStories my bike kept me sane in between chemotherapy sessions pic.twitter.com/URYdKl2gW4
— Jane Midgley (@JaneMidgley9) January 27, 2022
View this post on Instagram
#CancerRevolutionStories
My @wewearboost prosthesis & Tamoxifen are part of my post cancer everyday life.
Grateful for both #breastcancer #WorldCancerDay2022 @CR_UK pic.twitter.com/gnVK4WfSnU— Jenn (@Whole_HeartedUK) February 1, 2022
This is my life as a @CR_UK cancer researcher 💜
It may look like I’m using a giant pipette to move @irnbru-like fluid from one tube to another but I’m actually preparing #OvarianCancer cells for some drug profiling microscopy 🔬🧫#WorldCancerDay #CancerRevolutionStories pic.twitter.com/zIbGLKzqRG
— Samantha Littler (@samlittler282) February 4, 2022
When I was going through radiotherapy, my kids and I would use this lightbox to count down the sessions until it was all over. #CancerRevolutionStories #cancer #breastcancer #radiotherapy pic.twitter.com/GoyHW6aGdL
— Mrs H (@mrandmrsharris) February 2, 2022
#CancerRevolutionStories. Forever learning from & inspired by my patients. The people who have taught me things you can’t learn in a book, who’s voices have shaped protocols, who have given me the the privilege of being in their lives. I will always be grateful for you 💙 @CR_UK pic.twitter.com/lVlKTrMwAF
— Holly 🧬🌍🌿📚 (@HMay_20) February 2, 2022
From HElen Rogerson, via email
This is my journey with breast cancer. I had my last session of radiotherapy last night.
I found painting my emotion out a great release. This dinosaur was completed after my chemotherapy, breast operation and during radiotherapy in March 2022.
The darker colours represent the dark days, the pain, the grief, the struggle and the hidden emotion, and then the orange tones of joy rising like a Phoenix as you head to hope and your future life beyond cancer, and the white cross my Christian faith at the centre of my journey.
My mum and dad both died of cancer at the age of 60 and 63 in 2000 and 2001. I was 29 years of age when my dad died in 2000. Within a year I had lost both parents to this dreaded disease in a matter of weeks from diagnosis. My dad had stomach cancer and my mum secondary liver cancer and both ended in death.
Devastating!
However, both of my parents were blessed with being able to die in hospices in different parts of the UK and both were like 5-star hotels and the care outstanding, and I have special memories of those end days, with my husband’s support and precious moments with my mum and dad.
In September 2021, I was with my husband on a 2-night get-away in the UK, showering before dinner when I found a lump in my left breast. I waited until the day after to return home and see the GP. Confirmed lump, sent to breast clinic, mammogram, ultrasound, biopsies, and the breast surgeon confirmed Invasive Ductal Breast Carcinoma.
I was in shock. That dreadful death word ‘Cancer’ again had shook my family, but I said ‘it’s not taking me’! What swiftly followed—seeing the amazing oncologist, 8 weeks of chemotherapy, with body-slaughtering side effects, breast excision and lymph node biopsy and radiotherapy! It was a whirlwind in time, physical effort and emotion. I am thrilled to say that I rang the bell yesterday with my husband to mark completion of treatment, and as neither my mum or dad made it to that stage, I gave that bell every ounce of energy and passion I could find and nearly brought it if the wall!
This is cancer—the dark and light of days!
My new motto is—Go with the downs and enjoy the ups.
I hope and pray some of what I have written will resonate and encourage anyone suffering or supporting someone with cancer.
I work for the NHS and hope to return to work in the summer. Life goes on!
Terms and conditions
- To take part in this digital project, you must post a photo of an object to Twitter or Instagram using the hashtag #CancerRevolutionStories
- By using this hashtag, you give permission for your posts to be shared by the Science and Industry Museum on their channels. These channels include, but may not be limited to:
the Science and Industry Museum Twitter account, the Science and Industry Museum Instagram account, the Science and Industry Museum blog and the Science and Industry Museum website. The posts and content shared may also be used on screens at the Science and Industry Museum to promote both the Cancer Revolution: Science, innovation and hope exhibition and the #CancerRevolutionStories digital project. - Posts and content submitted to the #CancerRevolutionStories project may be reviewed by the museum’s curatorial team to determine whether any objects are of interest Science Museum Group’s Cancer Collection Project.
- Offensive, defamatory or disruptive language or images will not be acknowledged and the Science and Industry Museum retains its right to hide or remove any unsuitable comments.
For more information visit https://www.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/privacy-policy/
Hi, Id like to add to this, but don’t uses Twitter or Instagram. How can I get involved?
Hi Sonja, thanks for your interest and for getting in touch. You can email your story to marketing@scienceandindustrymuseum.org.uk instead.
— Mike, Web Content Manager
Like many people in my generation I don’t use Twitter or Instagram.
Please can you offer another way to contribute? At the moment this wonderful project is excluding many people.
Hi Karen, thanks for your interest and for getting in touch. You can email your story to marketing@scienceandindustrymuseum.org.uk instead.
— Mike, Web Content Manager