The ‘Douglas Macmillan Award’ continues to celebrate a person or group that is exceptionally passionate and committed to helping Macmillan improve the lives of people living with cancer. For this award there are no nominations, but instead the judging panel selected a winner from all the nominations. The 2023 winner is Sarifa Patel, who helps make sure nobody’s voice is lost.
Sarifa turned her own lived experience of cancer as an opportunity to help others with cancer in her community to ask for the support they are entitled to. Despite all of life’s challenges, she shares her passion, her gift for languages and her generous nature to help others with cancer in her community.
Like many woman of colour, Sarifa has faced barriers to accessing health and social care and financial support during her cancer journey. Over the years, she has courageously sought to break down these barriers and supported others to do the same.
Being multilingual, Sarifa is always happy to translate cancer information and documents for friends, neighbours and members of her community, and she regularly assists people during appointments. She also campaigns tirelessly to encourage people to speak openly about their cancer experiences, leading by example through sharing her own story as a Macmillan Cancer Voice.
‘Members of my community face a lot of inequality and need peer support – often in their mother tongue,’ says Sarifa. ‘Often, people don’t know how to ask for support, so I try to educate them. We are not hard to reach but easy to ignore, so I want to make sure everybody’s voice is heard.’
Find out more about the Thanks to You Awards.
