Patient representative
Jackie’s interest in hernia stems from her own hernia journey. Following surgery in 2015 she was left with multiple incisional hernia which were repaired using mesh. Jackie is fully able to understand why patients associate post-operative pain with mesh as she did this herself for several years, however through discussions on social media with surgeons and further research she began to have doubts about this. After being invited to British Hernia Society Conference in Edinburgh in 2019 and speaking to the kind surgeons and mesh representatives Jackie realized her initial beliefs were incorrect and other surgical factors had caused her pain and not the mesh itself. Jackie is very excited to be one of the first patient representatives on the board of the British Hernia Society, she is a keen to help patients who have found themselves in similar situations and would like to see a patient pathway created to enable those who do need further treatment after surgery to access this. Although she still experiences pain following treatment this is now greatly reduced and she is again able to enjoy an active life and attends regular spin and pt sessions and would like
Having been impressed by the kind surgeons of the British Hernia Society and listening to how they take patient concerns seriously Jackie is keen to spread this message. For surgeons and patients to come together as they did in the recent patient Hernia Delphi group discussing what is important for future research opportunities for hernia surgery and by the launch of the new hernia data base Jackie is confident that any patient concerns can be addressed and together hernia surgery can be taken to a new exciting level.