Poet laureate Simon Armitage has used the stories of cancer patients and their families to pen a new poem to mark Yorkshire Cancer Research’s centenary year.
Founded in 1925, the charity said ‘The Campaign’ reflected the progress made over the past 100 years as well as being “a call to action”.
The poem opens by likening cancer to a dragon, in reference to a quote from the charity’s former secretary Sir Harold Mackintosh, who said it needed slaying and we need to be St. George in combatting it.
Sara Williamson, who met with Armitage to help shape the work, described the finished piece as “just magnificent”.
The 56-year-old from Wakefield, who was diagnosed with breast cancer 10 years ago, said: “He has weaved research, fundraising and patient experiences together.
“It catapulted me back to when I was diagnosed, but it also was uplifting because it showed true Yorkshire: I am going to get through this, nothing can defeat me.”
Armitage met with patients, clinicians and researchers while developing the piece.
“What I took from that day was emotion,” he said
“There was a lot of sadness, but also a great deal of optimism, and I knew I did not want to write something that was mawkish, downbeat or sentimental.
“I wanted to write something rich with all the possibilities that people have now.”
Yorkshire Cancer Research was founded at the Old Medical School in Leeds on 21 May 1925.
By the 1940s, it had grown from a small research laboratory into one of the biggest cancer research centres in the world.
Today, 182,000 people take part in cancer research and services funded by the charity.
The charity’s Chief Executive, Dr Kathryn Scott called Armitage’s poem “hopeful”.
“We can cure people of cancer so much more now today than we could a hundred years ago, so it really demonstrates all that progress that has been made,” she said.
“The poem is also about a call to action: support Yorkshire Cancer Research and we will help improve those outcomes for cancer patients.”
According to the charity, Yorkshire is one of the regions hardest hit by cancer.
People in the region are more likely to have their lives cut short by cancer than almost anywhere else in England.
Sara said she hoped the poem would provide “great inspiration to people who are diagnosed” and show people that cancer was “not the end of the road”.
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Source: Johnny Reed and Elizabeth Baines – BBC
