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Journalism award helps cement legacy for cancer nurse’s blog

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A cancer specialist nurse who wrote a blog about her own experiences of living with the disease to raise awareness among other members of the nursing profession has posthumously won an award.

At a ceremony on Tuesday evening, Ingrid Fuchs was named Columnist of the Year (B2B) at the 2022 British Society of Magazine Editors Awards.

“Out of this grim predicament came a column that was clear, candid, eye-opening and life-enhancing”

The judges

Ingrid was a clinical nurse specialist who herself had been diagnosed last year with triple-negative breast cancer, a less common form of the disease that is harder to treat than many others.

Formerly, she was lead clinical nurse specialist at Avon Breast Screening, part of North Bristol NHS Trust, where she worked to support women recalled for assessment and to boost screening uptake.

A specialist breast cancer nurse to the last, following her diagnosis, she contacted Nursing Times and asked if she could write about her cancer journey to help raise awareness of her condition.

In a series of 25 very personal blogs, which we began publishing in March this year, she candidly shared details of her diagnosis and treatment, and their impact on herself and her family.

In her own words, she said: “I hope that talking about my experience will offer new insights, both for me as a patient and practitioner, and for other clinical nurse specialists.”

Her articles have been read by thousands over the last six months, with some instalments – especially those on CT scans – proving especially well read.

We sadly learnt that Ingrid passed away peacefully on the morning of 22 July with her family by her side, less than 10 months after being diagnosed with an extraordinarily aggressive tumour.

Kaïn and Jean van den Elsen, Ingrid’s son and husband, respectively, wrote the last part in the blog series together, in which they revealed the news of her passing and that we published in November.

Jean attended the awards ceremony and accepted the award on behalf of his family, receiving a standing ovation from other finalists and winners attending the event at the Pan Pacific in London.

The judges said: “In a field that tends to be dominated by technology and marketing, this year’s winner is someone completely different.

“Nurses deal with matters of life and death all the time, but it’s something else when they’re dealing with a terminal illness themselves,” they said.

“Out of this grim predicament came a column that was clear, candid, eye-opening and life-enhancing, and we’re just sorry that Ingrid Fuchs didn’t live to hear that she had won an award for it.”

The annual BSME Awards, hosted this year by actor Stephen Mangan, are designed to celebrate editorial excellence and innovation across digital and print publications in the UK.

Nursing Times’ art director Jennifer Van Schoor was also shortlisted in the Cover of the Year (B2B) category, which she had previously won two years in a row.

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