In this blog, Abi tells us all about her role here at Macmillan.
Hi, I’m Abi and I’m the Managing Editor in Macmillan’s Cancer Information Development team. I’ve worked at Macmillan for seven years now, and I love working here. I feel proud of my team and all that we achieve together, which includes an extensive range of top-quality patient information in a variety of formats.
My work background
My background is actually in Marketing, which I studied after my English degree. I started in Macmillan’s marketing department as a Marketing Officer and then joined the Cancer Information Development team as an Editor as I really enjoyed working on our patient information. I still get to use my marketing skills regularly as it’s important to promote our information, find out how people use it, and capture any feedback and suggestions for improvements.
I always wanted to work for a charity, and had some very positive early experiences with Macmillan supporting friends and family. Getting a job here was a dream come true for me, and sometimes I still have to pinch myself when I think about how lucky I am to work for such an amazing organisation.
About me and my job
I live in Beckenham with my lovely husband Chris and our beautiful 22-month old daughter Charlotte. A typical day for me involves a very early start, courtesy of my daughter, and then I’m logged in and ready to start working at 8am every day, although this does mean I get to finish at 4pm! Outside of work, I like to see friends and family I also love playing tennis. I’m passionate about interior design and travel, and am happiest when planning my next holiday.
Managing a team of three Senior Editors, seven Editors, one Editorial Support Officer, two Editorial Assistants, a volunteer and sometimes an intern – as well as our Quality and Improvement Officer who leads on accessibility – keeps me very busy! The team produces over 150 booklets and leaflets, over 340 fact sheets and an enormous website, all of which need to be updated at least every 2.5 years.
Our content covers key information areas about diagnosis, treatment, living with and recovering from cancer, and a large number of cancer types – and we’ll always keep that core content updated. But we’re always reviewing the topics we cover and adding new content where it’s needed – often in response to feedback from people affected by cancer and those who work with them.
Macmillan is certified with the Information Standard so we follow strict procedures while producing our information, and I look after our enormous work planning schedule.
Involving end users is a key part of our information production processes. We manage over 200 patient reviewer volunteers and are always trying to recruit new ones.
The team is always busy. As well as maintaining our popular Twitter page and blog, we organise regular photo shoots and commission new illustrations and videos, as well as the occasional animation. We also upload approx 400 Information Prescription PDFs to NHS Choices every year. These are shorter pieces of information that people can select and collate, depending on their diagnosis and situation.
Key projects this year include the redesign of our patient information website. Working alongside the Digital team, we have made the site more accessible and intuitive for people affected by cancer. We have also worked hard to create new front covers for our printed resources, many of which now feature people affected by cancer talking about their own experiences.
We’ve also worked hard to make our information more accessible to a range of people with different needs. Our Quality and Improvement Officer is always thinking of ways to improve and promote our range of accessible formats, which includes translations, easy read booklets and videos captioned with British Sign Language. It’s exciting to plan ways to reach more people with our information than ever before.
I’m proud of my work at Macmillan over the last seven years, and it’s amazing to see how much our patient information has improved in that time. This is an exciting time to be in the team, as we’re really stepping up our work around promotion and evaluation, and I hope we continue to improve the lives of people affected by cancer in the years to come.
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