Building trust and showing transparency
In the next phase of our campaign, we teamed up with FreshRB, a creative digital media agency from a piece of video content around building trust, demonstrating the transparency of the process of giving blood for research via the BioResource, with the primary audience being people from South Asian and African communities.
The decision was to work with one of the community organisation CEOs to ensure that the video connected authentically with the target audience, as well as to show how easy and safe it is for anyone to join the BioResource.
Sukhjeen Kaur, the CEO and Founder of Chronically Brown was our star for the video and explains in it why she donated her blood sample and shares her experience of volunteering with us!
Representation in research
In the video, Sukhjeen talks about her experience with a chronic illness, representation in research, and how taking part was simple, clear, safe, and has a wider impact on health research. The emphasis was on showcasing how we aspire to be a pioneering organisation in developing a diverse infrastructure of bio-samples for health research and how representation of people from diverse backgrounds will accelerate/contribute greatly to future research on a variety of conditions.
Caribbean & African Health Network video
One of our community organisation partners, the Caribbean & African Health Network team, also created a video! It focused on promoting the work of the BioResource and how to get involved, presented in a casual conversation between two marketing experts, Natacha and Sam. Take a look at their video below!
We have more content on the horizon, such as more videos from our Community Organisations and more collaborative pieces with FreshRB - watch this space!
Taking part
Joining the NIHR BioResource as a research volunteer involves donating a blood or saliva sample, completing a health and lifestyle questionnaire and consent form, and agreeing to grant us access to medical records (if required). New volunteers based near one of our BioResource Centres can provide a blood sample at an appointment with us (only about 5% the volume required when someone donates blood to the NHS) or for those unable to visit us, a saliva sample can be completed using an at-home pack delivered to home and returned via Freepost.
Anyone, any age, can take part in research via the NIHR BioResource. If you're interested, please fill out this short form or e-mail us on nbr@bioresource.nihr.ac.uk and our team will guide you through the sign-up process. Alternatively, call us on 0800 090 2233.
If you heard about us through one of the community organisations, please do let us know!
We're incredibly grateful to our partners for their contributions and together we're excited for the rest of the campaign and what it stands to achieve.
Keep an eye on our social channels (Twitter and LinkedIn) for more details and check out the community partners, Black Health Initiative, Caribbean & African Health Network, Chronically Brown, Connected Voice, Research Black, Rotherham Ethnic Minority Alliance, Social Action for Health, South Asian Health Action and Egality Health.