Clinical trials & medical research (young people)

I was having quite a bad period of health I think. My lung function had gone down quite a lot and I think, although my lung function had gone down it was still in the relevant kind of ranges to be on a clinical trial, that this particular clinical trial of Mannitol. So I basically wanted to do anything I could to try and get my lung and help and I was invited by, we’ve got a research nurse at my hospital where they we have CF care, and she leads all the clinical trials and the consultant there he liaises with the research nurse to get all the ethics approved etcetera. And I think they just approach patients that they feel would be happy to be involved with the clinical trial or fit the medical criteria. Because obviously there might be loads of people that want to take part in the trial but if they don’t fit the medical criteria they can’t get involved. And I think because I’m quite a compliant patient as well I think they knew that they I could they could rely on me to kind of take the medication every day and record if I had, you know, any side effects [noise] or anything like that which, I think they could rely on me which is quite a big thing if you want to get good data so. 

I think a barrier might be, so as I said when I was younger we didn’t do anything where I had to have another blood test. So if there’s a particular procedure involved that you don’t really want to do then you’re very free to say no. But even if it’s something that only, you know, that only mildly inconveniences you, like I had to have these bronchoscopies, you know, it’s not exactly a fun thing to have but you think well it’s worth it to put myself through that for the benefit that the trial gains from it. Or I mean there was another, with the pilot study they had this worst test ever, they had like a wire pipe cleaner brush that they’d stick in your nose and go whoosh and take it out. And it’s really, really uncomfortable and oh it was horrible but in doing so they got a million epithelial cells from each nostril doing it so, and the doctor doing it said “I know these are horrible we’ve done them on, we’ve done them on ourselves as well” but the amount of data we get from it is incredible. So I think perhaps sometimes maybe for young people to try and see past the, you know, slight uncomfort they may have to go through for the greater gain that it brings yes. And I think as, as a facilitator as I said being a young person on the gene therapy trial if I’ve got a chance of being one of the first people to have gene therapy and then to be on that drug then that’s a, a really great opportunity for my health. So even though that’s a yes it’s not a financial incentive it’s still a really good incentive to take part. 

Yes I think when families do say that they want to take part in the study it’s a two way thing really. We’re obviously offering them the chance of potentially better treatment or not and that’s what the study is about. And at the end of the day that’s something that we, we always explain the fact it is a trial means that it’s never been proven which of the drugs, say for example is better. Because if it had been proven it wouldn’t still be a trial so we, you know, we don’t know for sure. We, sometimes people can say, “Oh I think, you know I’ve used this for years and I’m sure it’s better and I’ve done my own bit of, or sometimes I give this and sometimes I give that and certain children do better.” But the fact that it’s had to go to a clinical trial means that it’s never been proven which is a key point that families need to, you know, be aware of really.

So why do you think you, you, taking part in a trial, what would be your key reason for taking part? What would be your motivation?

Because it was, it was like not like school. It was like fun in a way. And it like, it taught like us like what, what to learn, what to do with our condition.