The first session of Trans Aware Cancer Care happened last weekend at the Seacity Museum in Southampton, and it was brilliant!

We spoke to 10 different people about their experiences of cancer services, and their experiences in life generally. We had some tears, and a lot of love and laughter too.

TACC made some amazing connections with the Museum of Transology who were there collecting at the museum too. The flag we make together may very well end up in their archives!

We donated a participant information pack (including lots of signposting information, TACC pen and sticker) as well as a piece of art created by myself and the other community researchers. We all created other squares on the day which will eventually be part of a giant trans flag.

My art was created from different coloured paperclips made into a chain, the chain went across diagonally in a long line which should be the start and end of care. However, there were other chains coming off at different stages, going in circles or just trailing off. The lines were filled with my thought bubbles and practitioner speech bubbles which read; WTAF!? No. Nope. Eh? Not here. Round in a circle. Here we go again…

We all had the same crafts materials in front of us but made things so wildly different. Some of the stories were sad, some were about experiencing good practice, and all of them were so wonderfully presented in the art which was created.

Some of the amazing people from the MoT came along to create artwork too and another queer person was there doing some filming as part of their queer-based portfolio. Me and one of the other community researchers got involved and shared a little bit about ourselves and the project and why we think it’s important to share trans+ voices.

I got overwhelmed at points due to the noise (and the craft mess) but I had all the opportunities to get up, move around, do what I needed to do. I know someone else was wearing ear plugs, it was great they felt comfortable enough to look after their sensory needs. I think we had a lot of neurodivergent people in the room too, which was lovely as well.

There were a few (happy) tears at the session so I’m glad I took some tissues with me. The person who cried felt like they really needed to be there in memory of their friend. They had come along for the MoT event and stubbled across us which felt like destiny to them.

The volunteer from Beyond Reflections was brilliant and took to settling attendees in really well. Having a drop-in event is brilliant but people don’t know what quite to expect and I feel I go into ‘I must tell all the information as quickly as possible’ mode which isn’t helpful, and don’t know when to give people space or a bit more help without being explicitly told (oh, to be Autistic!).

I was a bit worried when we started because I didn’t know whether people would be able to find us easily, but the session went on 45 mins longer than it should have done!

We had to direct two people who came right at the end to our online form instead or perhaps they we shall see them at one of our other events (keep an eye on social media for those ones!).

It will be interesting to see what the thoughts gathered in the feedback box looks like. A feedback box would probably work well in the disability phase 2 project too!

All in all a fantastic start to the Trans Aware Cancer Care project, a lot of love in the room, and a lot of amazing outcomes personally and artistically.

This arm of the research project has now concluded. Please find the research report here: TACC Report.