VOICE 2025

VOICE course held at Barts Cancer Centre from the 31st August to 5th September 2025.

Please email if you would like to register an interest or for more information. 

Members of ICPV are actively involved in many areas of research. To facilitate and enhance our role in these activities, members aim to understand the fundamentals of cancer, study design and current areas of controversy and research.

Much of this is gained through experience. However, working with the internationally renowned Barts Cancer Institute we have developed a tailor-made course which provides a week-long intensive training in basic cancer biology, introduction to research terminology and study design, and critical evaluation of research proposals and scientific papers. We have called this course VOICE (Vision On Information, Confidence and Engagement) Science for patient advocates. This course is unique, the only course of this type in the UK.

VOICE aims to give participants:

• An introduction to basic cancer biology

This  will include sessions on what cancer is, how it is caused, how it develops and how  it is detected and treated. Course participants  will spend time in the research laboratories to help them to build their understanding.

• An introduction to epidemiology, statistics and reading scientific papers

This  will include sessions on on understanding statistics, understanding risk, epidemiology and how to read and interpret scientific papers.

We hope that this course will give participants increased  confidence to become more effectively involved in cancer research as patient  advocates.

For full details please download the flyer below. 

VOICE 2025

Rashmi Kumar is a member of the CRUK Involvement Network and the Research and Strategy Cancer Insights Panel. As a carer and bereaved family member, he brings valuable insight into the everyday challenges faced by patients and their families. Living in a diverse and disadvantaged community, Rashmi has helped shape patient and public involvement and engagement (PPIE) policy across local health networks. He was recently invited to attend VOICE – Science for Patient Advocates(link is external) study week, run by Independent Cancer Patients' Voice. The course offers an introduction to cancer biology, research terminology, and study design, helping participants build confidence in engaging with research.

Read his review of the week here

For information on forthcoming courses please contact us.