Few in the general community are aware of the prevalence and impact of traumatic injury on civilians, and C4TS works with our partners to help raise awareness by holding trauma themed events open to the public.

Transform Trauma

In July 2017, Barts Charity launched TransformTrauma, the UK’s first major campaign to raise public awareness and money for trauma research, which includes ways to help improve trauma survivor’s recovery experience. The campaign has since been rebranded as the Trauma Appeal.

Barts Charity supports the work of the Centre for Trauma Sciences (C4TS), which also manages AfterTrauma.  Although we are based in London, the information on this site and research conducted by C4TS benefits victims of trauma across the UK and the globe.

The Trauma Appeal campaign is supported by The Mirror media group, who publish articles on traumatic injury, it's impact and the need for research. The campaign also features a courageous group of trauma survivor ambassadors who have volunteered their time and stories to the cause, including high profile rapper Professor Green (Stephen Paul Manderson) one of the UK’s most popular performing artists.  Professor Green is himself twice a trauma survivor – first from an unprovoked knife attack, and a few years later he was hit by a car.

The centrepiece of the campaign in 2017 was a fundraising concert at the Village Underground in London on 9 September, headlined by Professor Green and other high profile artists. Since then, the campaign has focused on media articles and television appearances by senior C4TS researchers discussing our work. 

With a fundraising target of £1m, the Trauma Appeal has a long-term vision to save more lives and enable trauma survivors to recover better.  Currently, trauma research only receives less than 1% of medical research funding, despite the fact that 240 people are left dead or permanently disabled from injury in the UK every day. Encouragingly, many people have already generously contributed to the Just Giving appeal site.

More information about the campaign and how to get involved can be found on the Trauma Appeal website. 

Trauma Survivors Day

In May 2014, the American Trauma Society held the first national Trauma Survivors Day, comprising a series of events and social media picture sharing across the country to raise awareness of trauma care and celebrate those who have survived major trauma.

In May 2015, C4TS was the first UK centre to join in the #TraumaSurvivorsDay social media campaign via our patient facing portal AfterTrauma.

By May 2016, many other trauma centres and survivors across the UK joined in, and C4TS/ AfterTrauma together with Barts Charity held a 12 hour static cyclethon in the foyer of the Royal London Hospital. A total of 80 clinicians and one former patient joined in, while volunteers handed out fact sheets about trauma to passerbys. 

And in May 2017, over 1000 clinicians and supporters joined in, including a dedicated trauma survivor team.  Two Level 1 Trauma Services in the USA - Vanderbilt University Medical Centre trauma service in Nashville and Jefferson University Trauma Centre in Philadelphia - partnered with the Royal London and held their own cyclethons. Over £2,700 was raised for trauma research.

We will continue to celebrate Trauma Survivors Day each year, and engage more people - and international partners - each time. 

Concerts to transform lives

On 19 November 2016, the impact of traumatic injury in the community was highlighted through a music and multimedia event at the Village Underground in Shoreditch. Transformation was the UK's first concert dedicated to raising awareness of the prevalence and impact of traumatic injury and throwing a spotlight on the importance of research to improve survival and patient outcomes.

Transformation was produced by Barts Charity in collaboration with C4TS, with corporate sponsorship by solicitor firm Slater and Gordon. Mercedes Benson, a young music entrepreneur and Google UK social media manager secured the line-up and helped promote the event.

In between acts, videos telling the stories of trauma survivors were shown and C4TS researcher Dr Ross Davenport also took to the stage to talk about the importance of medical research in this underfunded area.  The concert was MCed by Sophie Morgan, a paraplegic TV presenter who recently co-hosted the Channel 4 coverage of the Paralympics. 

The lead up to the event featured a social media campaign #TransformTrauma which engaged trauma survivors, young people and clinicians in supporting the event via over 2000 tweets and retweets. The event was also picked up and promoted by the London Evening Standard, featured in New Musical Express and other media outlets.

The concert was a sell-out, attracting 1200 attendees, most of whom would have been exposed to the trauma stories and facts presented for the first time.

All money raised from the night went to Barts Charity's trauma appeal.

On 9th Sept 2017, a second concert was held again at the Village Underground.  Headlined by Professor Green and supported by other high profile artists, the concert was the centrepiece of the Trauma Appeal fundraising campaign for that year. This second concert sold out, and raised additional much needed funds for trauma research.

Our Next Public Event

The last public event was held on August 2019, to mark the recruitment of the 2000th UK patient into our pioneering ACIT study. There were presentations from C4TS researchers, and patients talking about the benefits of being involved in research.  

Please watch this space for the next events happening, post Covid-19. 

 

ACIT 2000 patients celebration this summer

Our next public event will be held in September 2019 to mark the anticipated recruitment of our 2000th patient into the landmark study Activation of Coagulation and Inflammation in Trauma (ACIT). We'll be inviting former patients and the public to hear about the important contribution this research has made to the management of severely bleeding patients around the world. More info soon!

Share this page