College members highlight the importance of pathology at the Science Museum’s ‘Journey of Life Lates’ event

The College delivered activities at the Science Museum in September.

Following public engagement training at the College, 4 of our members and their teams delivered original engagement activities at a high-profile event attracting thousands.

The College was delighted to deliver activities at the Science Museum’s ‘Journey of Life’ Lates event on 11 September 2024. Sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the high-profile event focused on health inequalities, communicable diseases and a range of other health-related topics.

Engagement activities

We delivered 4 activities exploring a variety of pathology specialties as part of this event. The activities were devised by Dr Arthi Anand, Dr Nathan Moore, Dr Angeli Arthur and Victoria Heath after they attended our Advanced Public Engagement Training course in February 2024. Delivery of the activities at the Science Museum event involved 25 volunteers, most of whom were RCPath and Institute of Biomedical Science members.

The lively and interactive activities included a giant Snakes-and-Ladders-style game related to HPV and cancer (created by histopathology trainee, Dr Angeli Arthur), and an equally giant dice-based game exploring historical facts and stories about antibiotics and antimicrobial resistance (devised by senior healthcare scientist, Victoria ‘Kip’ Heath).

Medical microbiology consultant Dr Nathan Moore’s activity was a microbiology-themed ‘dating app’ that highlighted the links between climate change and infectious diseases. Consultant clinical scientist Dr Arthi Anand’s activity highlighted histocompatibility and immunogenetics and compared patterns of stem cell donor availability across the world.

The event was open to people over the age of 18 and was part of the Science Museum’s Lates event series, which attract thousands of people from diverse backgrounds. We were delighted that past-President Professor Mike Osborn, Chair of our Trustee Board, Vince Voon, and Clinical Director for Publishing and Engagement, Professor Angharad Davies, could attend the event. They all enjoyed the activities being delivered by both College members and other groups of medics and scientists.

Lates Sept 2024 photo 1.jpg 1 — **Past-President, Professor Mike Osborne attended the Lates event.**

This was the first time the College has delivered an activity for the Science Museum Lates since January 2020. We ensured that we highlighted the event and our involvement to College Officers, local patient groups and London-based medical students.

The link between our public engagement training and the high-profile Science Museum Lates events is longstanding, and an opportunity that College members hold in high regard. Several of our past and present Honorary Officers have been involved in previous advanced training and subsequent Lates events and have gone on to deliver their activities at numerous other events, including those run for patient groups in their own Trusts.

We have currently paused the public engagement training due to financial constraints and are exploring ways to fund this excellent programme again in the future.

Our thanks to all College members and their teams involved in the ‘Journey of Life’ Lates event. If you would like to find out more about the event and/or the activities, please contact the Corporate and Public Engagement Manager, Penny Fletcher.