Sheffield Myeloma Research Team

Fantastic work by Jenny Down, a researcher in our team, who raised £200 for Sheffield Hospitals Charity this week doing a cake sale.

Bloodwise Impact North
Saturday 20 May, The Met Hotel, Leeds

We're delighted that we'll be hearing from our Patient Ambassador Helen Tait​ who'll be talking about her personal experience of AML, and Dr Tim Somervaille who'll be speaking about his research.

We'll also be joined on the day by Dr Andrew Chantry, Dr Shelly Lawson and their myeloma research team from our Sheffield research centre. You'll also have the opportunity to meet the Bloodwise team, including Acting CEO, Diana Jupp, and find out about our free patient information and our new fundraising initiative, Tea with the Girls.

Registration is from 10am for a 10.30am start, at The Met Hotel, King Street, Leeds, LS1 2HQ.

https://bloodwise.org.uk/civicrm/mailing/view?reset=1&id=4065

Bloodwise

Dr Andy Chantry & Dr Shelly Lawson had the honour of meeting the Calendar Girls yesterday to celebrate their 18th Anniversary since they made their world famous calendar. Since then they have raised over £4 million for Bloodwise, who are Sheffield Myeloma Research Team's main funders.

Work Experience Student Ben Croney

Placement – Monday 27th June to Friday 1st July 2016

Placement Feedback

Dear Dr Chantry
My week of work experience has been thoroughly enjoyable and useful, as well as very educational. I have learnt a lot about the working environment and the field of medicine (especially haematology). This is everything I intended on experiencing, and has really expanded my knowledge in quite a short space of time. This week will help me immensely when it comes to choosing my preferred career options for the future.
Some good aspects of work experience at Sheffield medical school include being able to witness hands on research, for example, the staining procedure I did with Mr Darren Lath and tissue culture. Also, experiencing you deal with patients has been enlightening and has made me appreciate varying illnesses. All the work that you and your colleagues do here is very interesting.
As far as room for improvement goes, I'd say there is very little. Everything I did was very good and to a high standard.
I am very grateful for the opportunity you have provided me with and it has been a pleasure working with you.

Kind regards,
Ben Croney

Work Experience Student Ms Jada de Marchi Taylor

Placement – Monday 20th June to Thursday 23rd June 2016

Placement Feedback

Dear Dr Chantry,

Thank you very much for the four days I spent doing work experience at Sheffield Hospital and Medical School shadowing you. I have learnt so much during this invaluable experience and I appreciated very much the kindness shown by all the staff. I felt challenged but also welcomed and would definitely recommend work experience here to any other student considering it.

The Medical School was a great place for work experience for me because it enabled me to learn about the two different aspects to medicine: the clinical side and the research side. I particularly enjoyed the ward rounds and time in the laboratories because they gave me a massive insight into the daily lives of the people working there and the patients. Spending time with you and your colleagues allowed me to learn about the positivity and empathy needed when dealing with patients and how important decisions are made collectively by doctors.

The diversity of my work experience meant I learnt about translational medicine, which I had never thought of previously. Observing the bone marrow biopsies allowed me to see how doctors and nurses interact with patients during a painful procedure and I felt it was an important and valuable experience for me to learn from. I also found very interesting being told by the researchers about the latest advancements in myeloma treatment.

I would like to thank you again and I hope my presence did not cause too much disruption to your schedule!

You were very kind to say you would be able to write a reference letter.

Kind regards,

Jada

We'd like to thank everyone who sponsored us to do the Bloodwise Triathlon team relay challenge event on Saturday 4th June. It was a fantastic day!

We are proud to announce that we are entering two teams into the Blenheim Palace triathlon, taking place in Oxford on Saturday June 4th.

All funds raised will be going to Bloodwise so that they can continue to support lab groups with research, just like ours.

Please consider donating today!http://www.justgiving.com/SheffieldMyelomaResearchTeamT

Donate to SHEFFIELD MYELOMA RESEARCH TEAM's JustGiving Page Help SHEFFIELD MYELOMA RESEARCH TEAM raise money for this great cause.

Sheffield Myeloma Research Team enters two teams for the 2016 Bloodwise Blenheim Triathlon! Watch this space for details of how to donate!

Where were you this lunchtime if you weren't in the Medical School listening to Simon's engaging talk?

Exciting updates from SMaRT about the potential use of anabolic agents in myeloma treatment

Meet Professor John Snowden, BSc (Hons), MBChB, MD, FRCP, FRCPath - clearly another hard working and highly qualified member of this research team.

John provides support, guidance and leadership to SMaRT in everything from cell biology to supportive care and survivorship research. He has been involved in writing the NICE Guidelines for Multiple Myeloma (2014-16) and is also an active member in many other haematological groups, including the UK Myeloma Forum.

Day to day, John's main focus is in the delivery and development of bone marrow transplant services for Sheffield and the North Trent region. He has been specially commended for two consecutive years (14/15) at the Anthony Nolan Supporter Awards as Clinical Supporter of the Year.

Dr Andy Chantry leads SMaRT alongside Dr Shelly Lawson and Prof John Snowden. Andy is an Honorary Consultant Haematologist at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals and Senior Clinical Lecturer in the Dept of Oncology, University of Sheffield.

Andy entered the field of medical research via an unusual route - his first degree was in Religious Studies and Archaeology! For 5 years, Andy then worked in a variety of social care settings including rehab and detox centres for people with drug addictions and running a day centre for unemployed people. Andy then moved to The University of Sheffield to study Medicine.

Since appointment to SMaRT in 2012, Andy has been awarded over £2million in research grants notably from Bloodwise (formerly Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research). His main research interests are anabolic treatment of myeloma bone disease and targetting myeloma tumour. Andy also has holistic research interests including coping with life with cancer, quality of life studies and using game technology to develop models of cancer.

Out of work, Andy enjoys playing guitar and singing with the Punk/New Wave covers band The Zeroes in local pubs and at various functions – what this lacks in finesse it makes up for in enthusiasm!

Meet Dr Shelly Lawson, BSc PhD who leads the in vivo studies of SMaRT.

Shelly has gone from success to success after graduating from the The University of Sheffield with a BSc (Hons) in Molecular Biology in 1997.

Today, Shelly's main interest is myeloma bone disease and she has successfully established several preclinical models of myeloma over the last 10 years. This has led to an increased understanding of the role of the bone marrow microenvironment and how it influences tumour growth. Shelly has several funded collaborations with the University of Birmingham, Queen's University Belfast and the University of Oxford.

As if she wasn't already busy enough, Shelly also frequently supervises research projects for PhD, MSc, BMedSci, Erasmus and Hallam placement students as well as lecturing in Bone and Cancer Biology.