Why do you want to be a Campaigns Ambassador?

We ask this question in your application, and with good reason. Evidence and facts make our messages credible but they're hard to remember on their own. Your motivations and personal experiences with cancer are a powerful influencing tool and make our campaigns relatable.

Being able to communicate your story with confidence is therefore an important skill to develop during your campaigning journey.

How well do you know your story?

We can most likely all talk about our lives and experiences, but how often do we sit down and plan it out... what happened, when? What gets included, what gets left out? How can we frame a moment in an interesting way or create empathy in our listeners? This is your chance to do just that, with expert guidance from our Media Liaison, Health Media teams, we would like you to write your personal story (or bio) to answer the question: why are you a volunteer Campaigns Ambassador with Cancer Research UK?

What do we want? 

We want our Campaigns Ambassadors to take some time to fully get to grips with how to structure and tell their stories.  

• Part 1: write your story. This will help you get familiar with, and fine tune, your story, with best the practice approach and structure. We may also ask for your written story for our campaigning comms, including media case studies, so it is helpful for us to have these on file. 

• Part 2: tell your story. Once you know your story inside out, we'll help you talk about your story. This key skill will help you change hearts and minds whenever you speak, whether it’s a politician at your next meeting, perhaps written or broadcast media or even for other activities like fundraising you may be involved in!

We know that lives go on and our stories will evolve and change over time. Once your written story is finished, it shouldn’t just sit on a shelf gathering dust, be sure to come back and update it whenever you need. We will also keep these on file as we continually have requests for supporter stories from teams across the organisation. We will always ask for your consent before using them externally, whether in full, a paragraph, a sentence or a quote.

What do I need to do? 

1. Use your guide, developed by our media experts, to help you write your story.  
2. Email it to us as soon as possible to get some feedback.
3. Once you’re really familiar with your story and have your bio written, we’ll help you talk about your story.
4. We recently held a fantastic storytelling webinar supported by five experienced Campaigns Ambassadors and our Health Media team. Watch a recording and use the tips to think about how you would tell your story with different audiences.

We are asking all existing Campaigns Ambassadors to send us their stories (bio) now and this is part of the post-induction activity for all new Ambassadors.

Get in touch if you have any questions.