Reflections from the 2025 Swallows Head and Neck Cancer Conference

In November, members of the Leo Cancer Care team returned from The Swallows Head and Neck Cancer Conference feeling inspired, energised, and deeply moved. Now in its 10th year, the conference once again highlighted why The Swallows is such a valued charity for those affected by head and neck cancer.

Chris Curtis and Sharon Curtis continue to show exceptional leadership. Their vision and dedication have shaped the “Swallows family” into something far more than a traditional conference. Patients, survivors, caregivers, clinicians, researchers, and innovators come together in a way that feels genuinely inclusive and powerful. The strong sense of community that runs through The Swallows is unmistakable and continues to inspire many of us working across healthcare and research.

We would like to congratulate Chris, Sharon, and the wider Swallows volunteer team on delivering such a meaningful and impactful event. Their commitment over the past decade has built a community rooted in compassion, collaboration, and shared learning.

One of the most powerful moments of the conference for our team was the session “When cancer comes home”, led by Paul Elkin and Dr Laura Charlesworth. Both speakers offered perspectives that resonated deeply with the audience. Drawing on her professional, research, and personal experiences, Dr Charlesworth highlighted the gaps that still exist within healthcare systems, particularly the need for stronger systems thinking and more joined-up care. Her reflections sparked important conversations and new ideas for improvement. Paul Elkin’s account of his own experience as a cancer survivor brought something equally vital: hope. Together, their honesty, clarity, and courage reinforced the importance of lived experience in driving meaningful change in healthcare.

Ahead of the conference, we were delighted to begin a new relationship with rehabilitation engineering company Consolor. Founded in 2006 by Kieran Cheer and Simon Keeling, Consolor brings decades of experience in rehabilitation engineering, with a strong focus on safety, comfort, and independence. Based in Southampton, the team delivers posture, seating, and mobility assessment services to NHS wheelchair services and private clients across the UK, always prioritising solutions tailored to individual needs. 

We are especially grateful to the Consolor team, and to Kieran Cheer in particular, for their openness and generosity in sharing their expertise, and for their willingness to support work aimed at improving experiences for a new group of people: those undergoing head and neck radiotherapy. Consolor generously provided a new headrest, which we were able to test and explore with attendees at the Swallows conference. Early results were promising and have already opened up new avenues for research and development. Collaborations like this highlight the value of translating specialist knowledge across domains, in this case from wheelchair services to upright radiotherapy. 

Our ongoing academic partnerships with Professor Mike Fray at Loughborough University, and with Catherine Holborn and Robert Appleyard at Sheffield Hallam University, remain central to our UK-based research. Through these collaborations, we secured ethical approval to undertake pilot testing and a questionnaire-based study with former patients attending the Swallows conference. Together, we are committed to placing ergonomics and patient voices at the heart of our research and development. 

We would like to thank those with lived experience of radiotherapy who took the time to participate in our UKRI-funded research at The Swallows. Their insights were invaluable. The ideas shared have already shaped new directions in our work, and their feedback continues to be our strongest motivation to keep improving what we do.