I first met Mrs Jenner when she bought her youngest son into the surgery for a clinic and she later volunteered to talk about her illness as part of our GP Attachment – she preferred to come to the surgery rather than bring this conversation into her home. Mrs Jenner explained she had been diagnosed with breast cancer a few years ago. Very soon after her diagnosis a mastectomy was performed followed by chemotherapy. She spoke of the initial shock, but her determination to ‘beat the cancer’. She believes her positive outlook had great influence over her health and was given the all clear a year on. A year after that she found a lump under her armpit and went back to the doctor.

Ethical issues arose in terms of sharing medical results when the doctor became aware that Mrs Jenner’s cancer had returned immediately prior to the family leaving for the first holiday in years. Mr Jenner regularly came to see their GP to monitor his chronic conditions, soon after their break he and the doctor spoke about how her cancer had returned and he felt able to fully express his fears for his wife’s health.

Mrs Jenner has two children. Her eldest has demonstrated anger issues ever since her diagnosis which Mrs Jenner finds hard to deal with. Her youngest had asked her the day before we met her if she was going to die. She said it was heartbreaking to explain. She told us of her hobbies and her home. She mentioned how she missed her old colleagues and how hard it was to give up work when she became ill. Mrs Jenner’s story was inspirational and her constant positivity and determination admirable. She said the care she received had been excellent and speaks highly of the support from her family. Mrs Jenner also explained how coping with a change in roles was difficult as she used to care for Mr Jenner and her children with their health problems and now it was the other way around.

My painting is based on health in context. We are studying health – which is an aspect of a person but all the other aspects of that person must be taken into account. Their family, their job, their views etc. My creative piece was intended to demonstrate how health must be looked at in context and how referring simply to medical notes you can miss so much. Indeed before I had even had the chance to meet Mrs Jenner, her GP handed us a copy of the patient’s brief medical history. It can be easy to look at a patient through those few pages of notes. Treatment details and medication names can be understood to get a biomedical overview of the patient. When doctors see so many people they must rely on this information to first understand their patient’s problems. After spending time talking with Mrs Jenner I realised the biomedical view of a person isn’t enough to treat them. Mrs Jenner’s history doesn’t just include her previous cancers, problems, drugs- it includes her life, how her health affects her family, how she felt when she had breast cancer before.

I used condensed copies of Mrs Jenner’s medical history. I painted with just black and white acrylic paint as I thought it would be more emotive and also allows parts of the face to disappear in the text. I used printed copies of the notes crumpled and ripped to represent people’s fragility. I purposely layered the text to give texture and a sense of depth. The text lies beneath Mrs Jenner’s face as if you would have to look through someone’s existence to perceive them as a scientific being. From a discussion with Mrs Jenner about her many encounters with healthcare professionals – it is clear that reducing someone to these facts is painful in itself.

My painting aims to demonstrate how it is essential to understand a person and how their disease affects them. From just reading notes so much can be missed. I tried to portray Mrs Jenner’s fear, pain and exhaustion after fighting cancer for so long. The fear detected when speaking to Mrs Jenner was mainly associated with her family. She had a positive and determined attitude towards her cancer, her account was inspiring and the support of her family was particularly moving. Even with this, the pain of Mrs Jenner’s is suffering is evident. All of these practical, social, psychological, emotional aspects of illness must not be missed or demeaned but respected and treated as well as possible. Her physical pain can be treated with morphine but there is also emotional pain suffered when facing a life-threatening illness. More than ever before I truly saw how deep illness can run in a person. How treating the science of a disease just isn’t enough.

I also painted an unrecognisable female face to represent Mrs Jenner in the painting. I discussed these issues with the doctor treating Mrs Jenner to make sure these measures where enough and Mrs Jenner was shown a copy of the letter of consent for her story to be used and kindly agreed. I have changed names, numbers, and dates and removed some information to make the notes completely anonymous to protect Mrs Jenner’s privacy. I just used words from her history to demonstrate the biomedical side to her disease.