Help us improve access to clinical trials for minority ethnic groups

There is evidence to show an underrepresentation of people from minority ethnic groups in medical research and clinical trials. People from ethnic minority backgrounds face longer delays to diagnosis, have lower awareness of symptoms and report poorer experiences.

Read our reports:

• Clinical Trials and Ethnic Minorities
• Ethnic Disparities in Blood Cancer

1. Better understand the attitudes towards and barriers to accessing clinical trials for the Black and Pakistani community
2. Develop interventions to improve awareness and access to blood cancer clinical trials and reduce health inequalities

We’re focusing on Black and Pakistani communities because:

• Rates of multiple myeloma are higher among Black African and Black Caribbean men and women.
• Rates of leukaemia are slightly higher among Pakistani men, women and children, and Black African women.
• Rates of some types of lymphoma are slightly higher among Pakistani and Black African men and women, and Indian men.

From April 2024 to June 2025, we collaborated with The Social Innovation Partnership (TSIP) to conduct social research aimed at understanding attitudes, perceptions, and barriers to accessing clinical trials.

TSIP employed a participatory approach, involving people with lived experience as community researchers to gather valuable insights. These community researchers conducted interviews with individuals affected by blood cancer from Black and Pakistani backgrounds, as well as with healthcare professionals and researchers.

Following this, we hosted a series of workshops where all communities involved had the opportunity to evaluate the barriers, suggest potential solutions, and test ideas.

As we enter Phase 2, we will take the insights gathered from the community and begin testing and refining these solutions to determine whether they are effective in practice.

Community Researchers
People with lived experience conducting research and insight gathering.

• Rehab Asad
• Dr Yewande Okuleye
• Ngozi Udom
• Sabahat Asif

Community Representatives
Members of the community with experience of blood cancer that will provide insight and hold us accountable.

• Orin Lewis OBE (Co-founder & Chief Executive of ACLT)
• Fatimah Abbas (Lived experience of blood cancer, Lecturer and Pharmacist)

Healthcare professionals and researchers

• Amparo Domingo Lacasa (Senior Research Nurse)
• Dr Stephen Hibbs (Haematology Registrar and Research Fellow)
• Dr Sarrah Tayabali (National Medical Directors Clinical Fellow)
• Chantelle Hughes (Senior Research Nurse)
• Dr Farhat Khanim (Lecturer and Director of Research)
• Dr Samir Asher (Consultant Haematologist)