Salford R+D’s third Research Week from 3-7 October gave hundreds of people the chance to find out about our active research portfolio and how it helps to improve healthcare.

Once again we put on a series of events to spread our message to patients, the public and colleagues.

Highlights included a busy day at Eccles Shopping Precinct when Research Nurses and Administrators, Citizen Scientist, Research for the Future, and colleagues from other health organisations took over a pop-up shop to offer health checks and talk to around 100 visitors about research.

More Research Nurses were involved in a very popular Research Roadshow at Salford Royal, again joined by Citizen Scientist and Research for the Future. Laboratory staff from the Biomedical Facility demonstrated how blood samples are collected, processed and analysed and more than 100 people took part in a live chocolate study, designed to make explaining randomised controlled trials appealing! Patients, visitors and staff also put messages on a Tree of Hope and contributed to a living collage all about research.

More than 40 Trust members came along to our ‘Ways to a healthy weight’ event, where Kirstine Farrar explained more about the risks of malnutrition and Katherine Grady looked at how being overweight can increase the risk of type 2 diabetes. Trust dietitians and Incredible Edible Salford also came along to give advice on healthy eating.

There was also a good turnout for our celebration of Patient Research Ambassadors and the patients and Research Nurses who attended have given us some great ideas for how we can develop this role alongside Salford Royal’s very successful Volunteers Service.

The week rounded off with a fun quiz devised by Adam Lounsbach and a Macmillan Cancer Support Bake Sale organised by Research Nurse Marie Greenhalgh, which raised £158. Thank you to everyone who baked and bought!