Carol Thomas, Tom Lynch

Dr Carol Thomas, Reader in Sociology, Institute for Health Research (IHR), recently began a 17-month ESRC project. The grant funds two days per week of her time, together with some Research Associate input from Tom Lynch, a postgraduate research student in IHR.

The project involves the re-analysis of two datasets comprising in-depth interviews with adult cancer patients and their main informal carers: 88 patients and 50 carers in total. The interviews were conducted in 1998-99 and 2001-02 as part of two large NHS-funded research projects on cancer experiences. The secondary data analysis makes use of narrative methods, something not attempted in the original data analyses. The project will address what narratives about living and dying with cancer are embedded in the interview accounts; what different theoretical and methodological approaches have to offer to the study of cancer narratives; what narrative themes this interview dataset contains on ‘differences’ associated with gender, age, socio-economic status, co-morbidity, and clinical characteristics (tumour type and disease stage); and whether themes associated with disability and disablism feature in these cancer narratives.

The project will make an original contribution to knowledge of sociological (sociology of cancer) and practitioner (supportive and end of life care services) significance. A book and related journal papers will result, and research experiences will be fed, throughout, into the Cancer Experiences Collaborative (CECo) – an ongoing five-year initiative funded by the National Cancer Research Initiative. IHR at Lancaster is one of five University centres in the CECo partnership.