What matters most for people affected by melanoma and skin cancer

Following a period of organisational transition, Melanoma UK wanted to take stock and renew its engagement with the melanoma community. The team wanted to better understand where they could help people affected by melanoma most and sense-check these real experiences against the charity’s existing strategy and priorities.

Participants

136 people, including 85 with lived experience of skin cancer diagnosis, 37 family members or carers, and 14 members of the wider public with an interest in the issue.

Methods

Online survey, free-text questions, single and multi-select questions, Likert scales.

Impact

Grounding Melanoma UK’s 2026-27 priorities in the patient and public voice and better understanding needs around skin cancer prevention and information.

Delivered on behalf of:

What we did

Distilled Melanoma UK’s goals into a clear set of priorities and project scope, developing objectives and outcomes along the way.

Tested the survey content with Melanoma UK’s own clinical medical advisors and ambassadors with lived experience.

Created and executed a multi-channel recruitment strategy for disseminating and recruiting key stakeholders to the live survey.

Identified clear themes, trends, unmet needs and direct quotes which were then disclosed in a full insight report with accompanying data tables.

Key insights

This national listening project gave people the chance to tell their stories and to express their most pressing needs. Melanoma UK learned:

1

Support should be focused on public awareness and prevention campaigns, better information for newly diagnosed people, and funding research into prevention and treatment.

2

People want practical information to help them with their cancer diagnosis and treatment, not just medical facts.

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3

Many family members and carers got no support for themselves.

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4

Experiences of skin cancer diagnosis were different for everyone.

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5

Not everyone felt involved in choosing their treatment.

6

Many people would engage with the charity’s social media content after seeing examples of their posts.

Improvement in action

Melanoma UK’s national listening project has ensured their future direction is shaped by current lived experiences.

Reaching out to the people they’re seeking to help has both established meaningful connection with stakeholders and enhanced the credibility of their role and priority-setting.

As a result, the team have been able to start reviewing how and what they signpost on their website to better meet peoples’ needs. Establishing these priorities has also offered Melanoma UK’s trustees something more concrete to measure progress against.

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