Jo's Story: the journey of one woman's experience of having cancer and a ‘learning disability’

Abstract

Accessible summary Tells story of a woman with learning disability and cancer. Highlights importance of research with people with learning disabilities. Promotes people with learning disabilities as reliable research participants. SummaryWith increasing longevity amongst people with learning disabilities, it is not surprising that prevalence and incidence rates of cancer are growing at a significant rate. Much of the research undertaken in the area of psycho‐oncology has focused on the ‘general population’, and over the last decade, there has been increasing interest in using a narrative approach to explore the lived experiences of people who have had cancer. Traditionally, research into cancer amongst people with learning disabilities has focused upon epidemiology or palliative care. However, the present article uses a narrative analysis to explore the lived and told experience of a person with a learning disability, who has been given a diagnosis of cancer. This article highlights the need and provides justification, for more qualitative research to be undertaken in this area.