Hull York Medical School researcher awarded NIHR Advanced Fellowship Award

Dr Olufikayo Bamidele, Research Fellow in the Cancer Awareness, Screening and Diagnostic Pathways Research Group and TRANSFORMing Cancer Outcomes in Yorkshire programme (funded by Yorkshire Cancer Research), Hull York Medical School, has been awarded a National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Advanced Fellowship. 

NIHR Advanced Fellowships are postdoctoral awards that provide funding and support to individuals who demonstrate that they have the potential, and are on track, to become future leaders in health research. They are one of the most competitive and renowned awards in the health research community. 

The Fellowship was awarded to Olufikayo in recognition of her contributions and commitment to addressing ethnic inequalities in psychosocial cancer research (that which focuses on the mental, emotional and social effects of cancer), especially working with underserved Black African and Caribbean communities to improve their health outcomes. This aligns with the NIHR’s aim of improving the health and wealth of the nation through research.  

The Fellowship will enable Olufikayo to continue her work in this field by focusing on understanding and addressing stigma related to prostate cancer in Black men. Evidence shows that prostate cancer disproportionately affects 1 in 4 Black men compared with 1 in 8 White and 1 in 13 Asian men*. While early diagnosis improves outcomes from prostate cancer, there are indications that self, public and structural stigma impedes social interactions, decision-making and early help-seeking by men of Black African and Caribbean descent, leading to delays in diagnosis and increased mortality. However, it is unclear how best to tackle this stigma within the Black cultural context due to a lack of research. The Fellowship will enable Olufikayo to harness her background in Microbiology/Public Health and cultural understanding of the Black community to work with them, NHS providers and wider stakeholders across the UK, to address this gap in the evidence base. 

Dr Olufikayo Bamidele said: "I am really thankful to have been awarded this prestigious Fellowship, which will provide me with valuable opportunity to lead an emergent specialist team on an innovative and timely research programme over the next five years. Beyond seeking to understand an important problem, the proposed research will co-develop with Black communities, culturally intelligent solutions that will hopefully address ethnic inequalities and improve the experiences and outcomes from prostate cancer among men of Black African and Caribbean descent - who are disproportionately affected by the illness but underrepresented in research. I am particularly pleased that the Fellowship will enable me to continue to beam the research light on an underserved patient population and address an important evidence gap in the psychosocial cancer research area." 

Olufikayo is passionate about improving understanding on how ethnicity intersects with other determinants of health to influence illness and healthcare experience among underserved groups. Her research is already helping to raise awareness of the impact of ethnicity on health and her Fellowship will enable her to build on this. 

About the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) 

The National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) is the UK’s largest funder of health and care research, providing support for researchers to deliver world-class health and care research that benefits the NHS, public health, and social care.

* (Jones and Chinegwundoh 2014; Prostate Cancer UK 2022)