Empathy Souls' Cancer "Speak Easy" got under way at 11am, with attendees and presenters arriving in the lead up. In addition to Gayle and Jackie from Empathy Souls, the organisers, there was a representative from Eve Appeal, a cancer support charity, and a doctor, Ojay, who would address the medical questions from the participants.

As people arrived, so did snacks. Shortbread, peanut butter protein balls and chocolate covered nutty dates all appeared on the table next to the drinks and soup to keep people energised.

The session was primarily attended by women to cover gynaecological cancers, with a number of those speaking from personal experience. Gayle and Jackie brought up points of interest based on the slides that the doctor was presenting and there was discussion about the different experiences of getting the right treatment for white women versus those from African, Caribbean or South Asian backgrounds.

"What black children have ingrained from birth is "don't talk your business"" - Gayle

The aim of the day was to give everyone knowledge about how to detect any issues early, with Karen from Eve Appeal talking of their aims of risk prediction, early detection and prevention. The organisers really facilitated open discussion too, trying to break down barriers and taboos. One participant, who'd been silent for the first 60 minutes, suddenly found her voice. She talked of her past cancer and asked for advice about what she was experiencing now.

Audience participation was encouraged. Sevan and the cameraman were the only 2 men present and they were asked to contribute too. As the morning session overran though, there wasn't time for Sevan to get the attendees to complete their surveys.

Before running off, Sevan did find 5 minutes to get some GoodGym postcards pinned onto the ActOne noticeboard 🙂

Gayle and Jackie from Empathy Souls were almost set up for their Speak Easy event when Sevan arrived at 9:30. All that was left to do was:

1. Put the soup for lunch in the soup kettle;
2. Brief Sevan on his task during the sessions; and
3. To connect Gayle's laptop with today's presentation to the TV

Stephanie, the community champion co-ordinator from Ealing Council took on the messiest task, transferring the soup. Meanwhile, Sevan was introduced to the survey questions and QR codes that he was to ask the attendees to complete. Other than that, he was to be another participant during the morning session.

Connecting Gayle's Macbook to the TV turned out to be the biggest challenge of the morning as ActOne's TV had an HDMI cable and Gayle's laptop a USB-C port, with no way to bridge them. Sevan found a shop a couple of doors down that sold phones and other tech equipment, but the owner wouldn't be around to advise and sell the right item for another 45 minutes.

Sevan was a bit worried. What if after waiting, they didn't even have the cable that Gayle needed. He went for a run along the High Street in Acton, trying to find anywhere else that would sell a suitable adaptor. After having no luck in Morrisons and Poundland, he didn't see any other options, so returned to ActOne. Luckily, the shop 2 doors down did have the right cable, which Sevan fitted in time for the session to start 🙌