Overview
Black, African, and Caribbean communities remain critically under-represented in UK health research, despite being disproportionately affected by conditions such as sickle cell disease. Traditional recruitment approaches have failed to engage with these communities, reinforcing systemic inequities in participation and outcomes.
To address this, the NIHR’s ‘Improving Black Health Outcomes’ (IBHO) programme partnered with Egality to deliver a fundamentally different, community-led model of engagement. Working with sickle cell advocate and artist A Star (Alidor Gaspar) and award-winning filmmaker Tracy Kiryango, we created a culturally grounded spoken-word film rooted in lived experience.
Launched on World Sickle Cell Day 2025 and distributed through trusted, community-owned platforms and Black-led health organisations, the campaign achieved over 11,000 organic social media views and widespread community endorsement. Crucially, it drove measurable behaviour change. Expressions of interest increased to 1,300, more than ten times the target, while total recruitment reached 2,123 participants nationally.
This project demonstrates that culturally authentic storytelling, delivered through trusted community partnerships, can overcome systemic barriers to research participation, providing a scalable model to improve equity in UK health research.
“It was incredibly inspiring and necessary to have Alidor’s experience at the centre of this piece. It was a joy to weave his story together for IBHO, a programme with the potential to create change for our communities.”
– Tracy Kiryango, filmmaker
Outcomes
The campaign generated:
- 1,300 expressions of interest (10× the target)
- 2,123 participants were recruited nationally, and
- 11,000+ organic social media views, providing a scalable, replicable model for improving inclusion in UK health research.
While long-term health outcomes will be measured over time, this campaign has already delivered a critical step change; significantly increasing participation from historically under-represented communities in UK health research.
This demonstrates a replicable approach to improving inclusion in UK health research, with potential for adoption across other under-represented communities and programmes.
