More Than Just a Skydive: From Losing My Grandma to Cancer to Contributing to Psycho-Oncology

This year I turned 22, and I wanted to do something that actually meant something to me.

So I've signed up for a tandem charity skydive in support of OGCancerNI. It seemed like a pretty memorable way to celebrate turning 22 while raising money for a cause that's become really important to me.

Last year, I spent months working on my Master's dissertation: a systematic review looking at mental health outcomes in people with Barrett's oesophagus, a precancerous condition affecting the food pipe.

A few things my team and I tried to do differently were,

→ We pre-registered the protocol on PROSPERO and followed Open Science principles throughout; search strategy, data extraction, quality appraisal, all built to be transparent and reusable by others.

→ Instead of treating "quality of life" as one flat outcome, we mapped how psychological burden actually shifts as someone moves through the disease. From a low-risk surveillance diagnosis, through treatment, to advanced cancer. As far as we could tell, no one had done that before.

→ The findings ended up genuinely actionable. Things like how much cancer worry is driven by *how* risk is communicated rather than actual risk, and how uncertainty during surveillance can be more distressing than a confirmed diagnosis.

Of course, the research wasn't perfect. The evidence available was fairly limited, most studies came from Western countries, and there was a lot of variation between them. That's just part of research. You work with the best evidence you have, you're honest about its limitations, and hopefully leave something that helps the next person build on it.

Working in psycho-oncology has become something I care about a lot and hope to do more about, for some personal reasons too. I lost my grandma to breast cancer, so spending a good few months, researching the psychological side of cancer, and now raising money for people affected by oesophageal and gastric cancers, feels like a meaningful way to give something back.

Every donation helps families facing the very challenges I spent the last year learning about. Whether it's £1 or £50, every contribution makes a difference.

I'll keep you all updated along the way and, hopefully, have some photos and videos from the jump to share afterwards.

Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for any support, whether that's donating, sharing this post, or simply wishing me luck and clear skies!

Kindness goes both ways. As I'm asking for your support, please know that the same goes for me. I'd genuinely be happy to chat about the research, psycho-oncology, or help with a literature review (or any other small contribution) if its ever useful to you. Please reach out to me at https://www.linkedin.com/in/florence-diana-c-/

Hope life treats you all with kindness. 💙