Amar Sethi

Hello, My name is Amar and i'm a second year medical student running for palliative care officer in Oncology society this year. The primary goal of palliative care is centered around relieving the physical symptoms and stress caused by serious life limiting illnesses such as cancer. Currently, this is an overlooked priority and there are substantial inequalities to accessing this care around the world. Only 14% of patients who would benefit from palliative care are recieving it despite its link to improved ouctomes and costs, alongside putting patients and their families at the forefront of decision making. There is also a huge gap in palliative care research with the field only recieving 0.3% of all research funding in the UK. In this role i would be commited to raise awareness, challenge misconceptions and to highlight the profound impact that this specialised form of care can have on patients' quality of life. Some of my ideas to achieve thse goals include: running workshops on how to have the difficult conversations with patients and their families with professionals in the field, exploring systemic barriers and new research papers in the society's journal club, partnering with local charities and community/volunteering organisations such as Macmillan Cancer support to understand how these organisations integrate with palliative care teams.