Two Bristol mobile clinics are offering locals a chance to fight disease
The UK’s largest health research programme is launching two mobile clinics in Bristol this May, offering residents a chance to contribute to a project aimed at transforming how the country prevents and treats serious diseases.
Our Future Health, which hopes to recruit up to five million volunteers, will bring clinics to two locations in the city. The first will be at the Asda Patchway Supercentre car park on Highwood Lane and will run from Monday, May 19 to Saturday, May 31. The second will be at the Imperial Retail Park on Wills Way, open from Thursday, May 22 to Thursday, May 29.
The initiative seeks to build one of the most detailed pictures of health in the UK by collecting information from volunteers, including blood samples, physical measurements and data from health questionnaires. In return, participants will receive personal health feedback such as their blood pressure, and may later be offered insights into their disease risk and opportunities to take part in cutting-edge research.
Dr Raghib Ali, chief executive and chief medical officer of Our Future Health, said: “We’ve already seen over 2.4 million people sign up to take part in our programme. By donating their health information, our volunteers are providing researchers with the data they need to make new discoveries about health. Volunteering for Our Future Health means you are part of the answer to better prevention, detection and treatment of diseases. If you’ve never done anything like this before, you’re exactly who we need to take part.”
The programme is supported by an extensive collaboration involving the public sector, life sciences companies and numerous leading UK health charities. These include Cancer Research UK, British Heart Foundation, Alzheimer’s Research UK, Diabetes UK, Stroke Association, and Asthma + Lung UK, among others. The project was established with funding from the UKRI Accelerating Detection of Disease Challenge, delivered by Innovate UK.
Letters are being sent to residents living near the Bristol sites, but no invitation is necessary. Anyone over 18 can sign up at ourfuturehealth.org.uk, fill in the online questionnaire and book an appointment.
Those not living near a clinic can still contribute by completing the health questionnaire, which gathers vital data such as ethnicity and family medical history.
New clinic locations will be announced on the Our Future Health website and its social media channels.