Episode 33 - Spotlight On Our Young Ambassadors - Making Positive Changes

In this episode, Anna talks to fellow young ambassadors Rhudi and Victoria about the Young Ambassador Program which is a 2-year program tum by the charity for young people aged 18 - 25.  They talk about what made them want to become ambassadors for the charity and some of the great things they have done during their first year in the program.

The Young Ambassadors play a huge role in the charity, sharing their experiences and using these experiences to not only help shape the work we do but make real and lasting changes to support the brain tumour community.  We are immensely proud of our Young Ambassadors and the work they do.

If you would like to find out more about our Young Ambassador Program or our current Young Ambassadors you can find some information here.

If you are over 25 but feel inspired by Anna, Rhudi and Victoria then you may be interested in finding out more about our Involvement Network 

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If you would like to speak to a member of our support team you can call 0808 800 0004 or email support@thebraintumourcharity.org

Transcript

Sarah: 0:38

Welcome to Let's Talk about brain tumours the podcast where we'll be talking to people who have been affected by brain tumour diagnosis, either their own diagnosis or the diagnosis of a loved one. We'll also be sharing news and updates and brain tumour charity about what we're doing to have the harm and double survival

Anna: 0:57

welcome back to another episode of the brain tumour charity Podcast. I'm Anna, one of the podcast co hosts but I'm also an ambassador here at the charity. In this episode, I'll be joined by Rhudi and Victoria two of my fellow young ambassadors to give a little bit more insight into what the ambassadors do and why we chose the role. I hope you enjoy.

Jen: 1:14

Hello, my name is Jen Boilestad and I have the absolute privilege of being the support lead for the young Ambassador programme at the brain tumour charity. This programme is for young people aged 18 to 25, who have either been diagnosed with a brain tumour themselves, or have a loved one who is living with or who has sadly died to a brain tumour. It's a two year programme, which aims to give young people the opportunity to connect with others of a similar age who can relate to their experiences, and who have a shared goal and drive to get involved with charities work and use their experience to try and create change. Last year in September 2021, we recruited our current cohort of young ambassadors, and this is actually our fourth group now. And so they are now halfway through their time in their role. There's about 20 of them in the group, who each have different passions and interests, and we really try our best to give each of them the opportunity to get involved in areas of the charities work that is most important to them. Young ambassadors are given the chance to attend events, lobby the government, share their story, support others learn new skills, and raise awareness within their local community. Working with the young ambassadors is genuinely one of the best parts of my job. It's so inspiring to see how young people are able to take what is often the very worst part of their life, and channel the energy and emotion and passion that comes from that into something that makes a real difference for the charity, but also the wider brain tumour community. We are super lucky that so many young people over the years have wanted to give up their time to get involved and champion the work of the charity. Young ambassadors are genuinely an integral part of the brain tumour charity now, and we're so so grateful for their support.

Anna: 3:09

So I'm joined here today with to my fellow young ambassadors, Rhudi and Victoria, thank you both so much for being on the podcast, it really, really means a lot. So I thought maybe if we could start off with both of you just introducing yourselves and maybe giving a couple of sentences about what being an ambassador means to you.

Rhudi: 3:24

Thanks Anna. Yes, I'm Rhudi. I'm a young ambassador. I'm 21. I'm from Glasgow, and I study at St. Andrews University. Being a young ambassador, for me has been a great way to meet people that have had really like similar quite traumatic experiences with brain tumours in the past. And, yeah, it's a great way to really talk about things that have happened in our lives that you can't really discuss with other people. And just sharing that commonality, really is is quite a powerful thing.

Victoria: 4:00

Yeah. Thanks, Anna, for having us here today. I'm Victoria Neil, and I'm 24 years old. And I'm also young ambassador as we've all said, and I work as a functional engineer at Diageo. And right now I'm on an engineering and Tech grad scheme just because I graduated this year in chemical engineering. And, for me, getting involved with the brain to a charity and specifically being a young ambassador is really important to me, because I think young people have a very, very big impact on the world at the moment, they're, you know, they're standing for causes that people necessarily weren't standing for before, and we're having bigger and bigger voices. And I think people really start to listen to us and make changes that we want to see. So, for me, it's all about getting my vision out there and helping others sort of achieve what they want to achieve. And also learn as really sad from other people's experiences, because you might have one perspective on how a brain tumour impacted your life, but learning how it impacts someone from a patient perspective to you know, living with one right now, or losing a different family member or, you know, having someone with it long term. So, yeah, it's really important to me to meet other people and form a sort of community for young people to be able to talk to each other as well as reach out to the public and share our messages.

Anna: 5:15

Absolutely. I totally agree. I think it's so important and it's just such a good programme to be on to meet like minded people like reset, who've gone through similar experiences. So for those that don't know and I haven't mentioned on the podcast before becoming a young ambassador because I lost my dad to a brain tumour back in 2011 When I was only 13 years old. So if both of you don't mind saying what was the reasons that you've decided to become young ambassadors,

Rhudi: 5:38

so I had a brain tumour, myself when I was 13 years old. And yeah, had a huge impact on my life. For about a year, I was recovering. And it really just took the bottom out of the world that I was living in. But it gave me huge perspective and tinsight, and, really, it's really like changed my life. And now at this point, I view as a gift. And that has allowed me to be different. And it's allowed me to understand what's important. But I do feel a strong responsibility to give back to those that have also been affected. And the brain tumour charity is the world's leading brain tumour, charity and organisation, so this is the best place to be.

Victoria: 6:38

Yeah, I think it's really nice when like, when Rhudi speaks about it seeing it's a gift, because I sort of feel the same way about my experience. I also lost my dad, I was 20 years old, and he had kidney cancer, and five years before it got all clear. And then fifth year, final scan, everything came back good. And then it turned out he had a metastatic brain tumour that stemmed from that very quickly was in the ICU. And within a month, we had to switch off life support. And as you said, Rhudi, it completely pull the rug out from underneath me, my life completely changed. And I think that his legacy is almost left me with that push to be a change in someone else's life. So I'll never get him back. But how can I help someone else through it? Or how can I make sure that doesn't happen? Someone else. So that's why I wanted to be a yam. And I first heard about the charity. Literally, it was my dad's funeral. And we were planning like a collection for something. And, you know, we hadn't had any connection with the brain tomour charity before it, but found it and we're like, you know, we'll, we'll put money towards this, get people instead of you know, flowers, everything, then raise funds for that. And we did. And it was only a couple years after, I think it was three years after my dad passed away, I finally felt I want it to be part of the cause. So specific to his illness, the young ambassador scheme just seemed pretty perfect for a development and come to terms with what you've been through. And also, yeah, just seemed like a really welcoming space.

Anna: 8:14

Yeah, absolutely, I can really relate to what you said about kind of that legacy element of keeping someone's memory alive by doing something really good with it. But it's also really interesting, like you said, Victoria, to relate to people like Rhudi, so we haven't had that same experience. But we get to talk to somebody who's experienced a brain tumour and an entirely different way to how we have and we all have a very strange bond. But I think it's helped us all come together and really do some great work for charity.

Victoria: 8:41

I think like we were saying, last night, we were all kind of socialising together. And we said, it's like a silver lining to a really, really grey cloud to get to meet people who are so amazing and so inspirational and have the strength within them that I just can't, I don't I don't see outside of like the room sometimes. So it's nice to pick that from people and learn from them. So

Rhudi: 9:02

definitely, I also think like, the the purpose of the young ambassadors is that we really help create the story and and aware of voices are more powerful to people that want to, to want to understand the real impacts on people's lives, because we can tell firsthand the experiences that we've had. So that really adds a new sort of, like, a new sort of power to a story.

Anna: 9:35

Yeah, to add to that, I think the fact that we are so young is so important, obviously being your ambassador, your age 18 to 25. And brain tumours are the biggest killer of children, adults under 40. So I think it's that kind of age range that it really relates and it is just so important for people our age to understand the signs and the symptoms and why it's so important because when we're the age bracket that it kind of affects. So I think it would be nice for our listeners to understand a little bit about what we actually do. So we've spoken a lot about what it means to us and that we raise awareness and we do all these things. But what have we done so the young Ambassador scheme, we started in September 2021. It's now October 2022. So what have we done in the past year?

Rhudi: 10:20

We have monthly meetups and firstly, they're all virtual because all the young ambassadors are based throughout Are the UK there's three in Scotland right now, which is where I'm from so in Victoria, but mostly in England. And so on the virtual meetups, we, we discuss policy, we discuss ideas for fundraising, we allocate roles or who's going to go and speak, where is it, um, with regards to like the government, or going in giving talks, fundraising events, and also looking into some cures that like a cutting edge, maybe, for example, ophthalmology, that can help diagnose brain tumours earlier, and also blood testing, that can detect a brain tumour, just from the blood. So we really get exposed to some quite revolutionary ideas in terms of diagnosis, and research.

Victoria: 11:23

And that sort of thing, good overview, really, sometimes I forget all the different aspects we get involved in each month when we meet up. And it's, it's funny, because I've specifically gotten involved with the policy side of things. So one of the best events I went to was I went to Westminster, and spoke to MPS and held a session there, where it was basically a come and go of MPs came in, you explain sort of about the charity, our new survey results, and then what they could be doing to help support us better. And it was really good because you got to hear their personal stories as well as stories they had from their constituents. And I've not really spent much time in parliament before. If so, get in touch and engage with really powerful people who can make a difference, and was really beneficial for me, and we wrote a blog about it after Jeremy Kaz and I Kaz is an involvement champion in Jeremy's another young ambassador. We all wrote a blog after collating all that together. And Hannah, an ambassador in the year above and I were in the mid year appeal. So that's a video that was focused on bright minds, which is basically supporting lead researchers across the country and across the world. So it was a girl in Boston, she was researching the specific type of tumour, and we just spoke to her about her work, and why she got involved in it. But other things are podcasts. So I was on a grief podcast with one of our senior policymakers about music that can help you through that. And we've just made a Tik Tok scavenger hunt today together, which was super funds, we get involved in a lot of our PR site as well. And one thing I took up recently was the strategy steering committee. So I'm on that and forming the new strategy for the next five years, which is something that I've wanted to be involved in, in my career as well. But something that I think is so important, because we're engaging with researchers, our employees, the ambassadors, as well as you know, people who are standing in these industries as well. So it's very varied. And again, great opportunities for development and for putting your voice across. However, that may be the best way for you wait for you.

Anna: 13:32

Yeah, definitely on strategy, I went to the brain tumour charities strategy day, where there was so many people from the branch and charity community, or at the business Design Centre in London. And I think, as young ambassadors, I felt kind of privileged to be invited to a day like that, because there was some really, really amazing intelligent people there. We had like brain surgeons, we had really kind of people who put a lot of money into the charity, and just adults who were young adults, firm, proper adult, I like to say that who this is their job, and this is their livelihood. And I think it was so lovely of them to kind of see us as equals and to really listen to our ideas and what we had to say and just involve us with that strategy. It was it was a really lovely thing that I got to go along to. So I've done that. And then as Rhudi said, and I you mentioned earlier, we have monthly meetups, over zoom, like you said, we're all scattered all over the country. But the charity does work really hard to get us all together in one place. And it's been lovely. Today, we've all met in London. Well, not all of us can be here. But it's we've had a good a good few of us. I think there was about how many would you say about 15 of us today. And we've just had some really fun things and just it's an opportunity for us to like socialise and as we said just all talk to each other and really formed those friendships like that. It's just a bit harder to do when we're speaking virtually. And we had another one back in April as well, didn't we and that was the very first time that we all met each other in person because I can remember the first one back in September, I'm not sure if you guys felt the same but it was virtual. The first time that we met up and we did some little icebreaker games and stuff in breakout rooms on Zoom and things like that. I think COVID was still quite a high risk thing. So we weren't allowed to meet up but it's a bit it's a lot different now. I think we feel like we've really formed those bonds as opposed to I felt quite nervous and didn't really know what to say when we first heard that I'm not sure if you guys,

Rhudi: 15:29

I agree, definitely, I think like you can't really form a genuine friendship over over zoom. But when you're in person with people, you can actually start to have those prolonged conversations and things that are not directly related to brain tumours, but yet again, are fundamental to a genuine friendship. Yeah, so that was really important. And that for me, like I felt emotional, leaving that first meetup back in, back in April, just because I really, I really got to hear the stories properly and see the see what it meant to people in their in their face. And yeah, I feel I feel really privileged to be a part of this community. Yeah, I think on that, Rhudi, myself and Madeline were the first ambassadors in Scotland. And there wasn't that community there before him. So we've made an effort, like we met up and had brunch one time, and now we're gonna make it like, quite common thing for us to meet up so that we know that each other there. But I remember the first meet up in person. And I wasn't very nervous, but I didn't know what to expect. Yeah, I think that again, I hadn't made it to a lot of the Meet meet ups online, just because I've University is really heavy, but you sort of went in thinking, or maybe they won't remember me. But then as soon as we walked into the room and start talking about, you know, changes we wanted to make or personal stories, or even just having proper conversations that you would have with friends, you just wrote down those walls and started to actually be like, these are people that I can see myself around for a long period of time for the future. And then I remember there was a session where Jan asked us, or would anyone feel comfortable sharing the story? And, you know, I'm quite comfortable public speaking. But there were a few people who weren't comfortable, or everyone was a bit like, Oh, this is in front of the whole charity. Yeah, it was amazing that that everyone in that charity wanted to come and speak here, I'd speak Yeah. And, and then I remember, you know, we all prepared our talks. And then we went off and managed to do the talk. And it was actually, I think the majority of us went off and actually did it. And I felt so proud of everyone. Because for someone who is quite confident with it, it was brilliant to see other people gaining their confidence. And I think it's because we each have people around us who are egging us on and wanting us to see us do well. So the meet ups have been brilliant being in person. And again, today, people are doing stuff, they wouldn't normally be comfortable with it just because this is a very safe space for us to actually see each other as much as we can. So yeah, it's been great having in person stuff, I can really see how much like it a means for, for other young ambassadors as well meeting them. Because, as I said, we don't normally meet people with this commonality. But I've already a lot of the young ambassadors, they they sometimes struggle with meeting people in social situations, and, and they know that there's a core here for people that are that may struggle.

Victoria: 18:37

Yeah. And that's it, you really, every time we meet up, it's like a no judgement zone, you can share anything that's going on in your life or your head. And I think someone even shared with me like they wouldn't, as Rhudi said, they wouldn't go and talk to a stranger or they wouldn't. They wouldn't get on public transport. Even that can be a challenge for people. But to get here, all of that was sorted, but they had to go on the bus or the train on their own. And I think it's just building that independence. paraments people. And it's just again, so lovely to see each time we meet up, there's progression and yeah, and development in people.

Anna: 19:09

So um looking to the future, we've got just under a year left as young ambassodors. So the programme runs for two years. What are you guys most excited about over the next year? What do you think we can do with it with our time that we have left?

Rhudi: 19:24

Well, I think there's definitely plans in motion to get together more over the next year, at least two or three times. But I think throughout the throughout the young ambassadors, we're generally trying to really up our game in terms of fundraising, and reach our target, which was initially what we initially set at 10,000 Over the two years, so we're going to have that push to get there. Me personally, I'm going to really try and host and plan a charity football tournament up at my university, which I've done before, and it's a great way to bring people together and really, like raise money for good causes and spread awareness. So but there's there's various other fundraising plans that are getting organised. I'll let Victoria maybe talk about some of them.

Victoria: 20:17

Yeah, so over the next year, I always forget it's two years because I just feel like I've just gotten to know everyone and it's like, oh, what are we going to do for last push and you So over the next year, I think fundraising will be quite focused for me, I'd love to do some challenges. I really like hiking. So trying to incorporate that in or sort of thrill seeking, maybe get some skydiving in. Yeah, but another thing I really enjoyed so far has been public speaking. So I've been at the pitch craft choir event, which was an animate sigils cathedral beautiful, beautiful area. And there was like 300 people there. And I got to share my story as well as support the family that were affected by such a such a tragic loss. And then underbelly, their big brain tumour benefit, and I worked for that company over summer. So with them, I got to meet some of the some of the comedians, and then actually just spend some time with them sharing my story again. So I think, for me, it'll definitely be on the public front. So I'd love to push myself into more of the event roles, hosting roles. Speaking, as we were speaking earlier, I'd really love to do some event speeches. Another thing is the fundraising. For me, personally, I've not really done a fundraising event before. So this will be a very new, so I'll need all of you guys's input. And I think lastly, it's figuring out how I can keep my keep my impact going

Anna: 21:48

100%. And I think there are so many other ways that you can be involved in the charity, even after being a young investor finishes. So you can become a mentor for the next cohort of young ambassadors, you can become an involvement champion, which is still very similar to with the charity, just not technically, in the age bracket of being a young ambassador. So there's still so many other ways that we can get involved with the charity. And I think now that the young Ambassador programme has opened that door for us, I know personally, it would be something that I'd be really keen to continue. I'm not sure if you guys were saying. Finally, I would like to put you guys on the spot a little bit, I'm just going to ask you in three words, if you could summarise feeling better, or how you've explained,

Rhudi: 22:31

I'll do one sentence gone. And that one sentence by I'm just gonna focus on the main one, which is I feel empowered, because I feel my voice, I feel like I've been given a voice to express the experiences that I've had. And to really join a group. As a group, we all have this voice of our experiences, and we can really make sure that we're heard. That's one sentence.

Anna: 23:01

Love it.

Victoria: 23:02

I love that.

Rhudi: 23:02

So long one.

Victoria: 23:04

And I guess I'll do the same as Rhudi, there's one thing I always reflect back on, which was when I was at Westminster, and I had a chat with one of our MPs. And we just agreed on the fact that we just came up with this amalgamation of ideas together. And it was the most selfless thing you can do is try and make a change in someone else's life that will have no impact on your own. So again, it's about okay, this has happened to me, but what can I do with it? What can I do with this gift or the situation that I've, that I can that I've been dealt? How can I make sure that my life continues to be positive and continues to make a difference in the world and continues to build other people up and make changes that really need to occur? So I think all of us are so selfless for getting involved and wanting to make changes, even though it will want change our own our own perspective or experience. And so that's how what it means to me.

Anna: 24:03

I think you both summed it up. So well, that's so inspirational. I think for me, if I was going to summarise it, it's just to really just feel that sense of reward. And that sense that I'm giving back and as you said earlier, Victoria, you worded really beautifully, just how turning a very sad situation into something that's just the it makes you feel a lot better. And I always come away from things like this and things like today, just feeling lighter. And like I've got something off my chest a little bit. And just as we said, we've got a bond with people. And I just think it's really lovely. So

Victoria: 24:36

I think we're very lucky to have such a good group of people around us. And as much as it's awful and tragic, everything that everyone's going through. If we can just find the fact that we've managed to find each other and the charity. That is just a beautiful thing.

Anna: 24:51

Absolutely. So if people want to find out more about the young ambassadors, you can look us up on the brain tumour charity website, which is www dot the brain tumour charity.org. And if you use the search tool on the website, and you can type in young ambassadors, and you can find out about all of the rest of us, there's 21 of us in total this year. So there's quite a lot of us just find out what we do and the reasonings behind why we became young ambassadors. And well thank you both so much for chatting with me today. It really means a lot. I hope you've enjoyed it and it hasn't been too much of a put you on the spot. Kind of interview

Rhudi: 25:22

my pleasure.

Victoria: 25:23

Yeah, my pleasure. Thank you

Sarah: 25:28

We hope you've enjoyed today's episode. Don't forget to subscribe to the podcast so you'll never miss an episode. If you'd like more information, you can visit our website at brain tumour charity.org or email our support team at support at the brain tumour. charity.org. And finally, before you go, if you enjoyed this podcast, please can you leave us a review on iTunes wherever you get your podcasts so we can reach more people and raise more awareness