King's student provides expert advice to 'Coronation Street'

A Doctorate in Healthcare student from the Florence Nightingale School of Nursing & Midwifery at King’s College London has been providing expert breast cancer treatment and care advice to writers at the award winning soap, Coronation Street, in a prominent breast cancer storyline.

Vickki Harmer, who is also a clinical nurse specialist (breast care) at St Mary’s Hospital Campus, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, has previously provided advice to script writers for breast cancer stories for BBC Radio 4’s The Archers and Channel 5’s Family Affairs. She was approached in September 2009 by ITV and Coronation Street via the charity Breakthrough Breast Cancer, of which she is on the Clinical Experts Reference Group, to provide breast cancer care advice for Sally Webster, one of the most popular characters on the long running soap.

The soap, which has been running for nearly fifty years and on Wednesday 20 January won another National Television Award for ‘Most Popular Serial Drama’, where a clip from Sally’s breast cancer storyline was featured. As part of the advisory role Vickki, along with Dr Emma Pennery, clinical director at Breast Cancer Care, works with researchers and producers at Coronation Street to create accurate storylines and details for Sally’s diagnosis and treatment. She provides information on treatments and reads scripts, offering feedback to ensure factual accuracy.

The media play an important role in information provision about prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer, as well as informing health policy and personal experience, so it is crucial that storylines are as accurate as possible. After Breast Cancer Care’s telephone number was advertised on Monday 28 December as a resource for further information, the volume of calls was double the expected amount for that time of the year, with about half the callers making specific reference to calling as a result of Coronation Street.

Vickki said: ‘This story will hopefully assist in delivering a positive portrayal of life with and after cancer and is encouraging to find continued efforts to decrease the stigma associated with a cancer diagnosis and increase the public understanding of the disease.’