Sling The Mesh founder wins HealthSense UK Award
Kath Sansom, founder of Sling The Mesh, has been named a winner at the HealthSense UK Annual Awards, a recognition typically reserved for career professionals and globally renowned academics in the field of health research and advocacy.
The award celebrates Kath’s contribution to public health awareness and tireless efforts through her campaign, which has had a profound impact on patient safety, regulation and informed healthcare choices.
The award is presented by President of HealthSense, Nick Ross, the former presenter of BBC Crimewatch. In his role at HealthSense he is a passionate advocate for integrity and transparency in healthcare.
“I’m deeply honoured to receive this award,” said Kath. “It’s powerful recognition that lived experience, investigative work, people’s stories and grassroots advocacy can drive meaningful change. I want to especially acknowledge the many people who’ve supported the campaign behind the scenes – most notably Ruth MacLeod, whose expertise in interpreting flawed scientific research and tireless work in policy have been instrumental in achieving real progress.”
Kath’s work stands out for challenging the status quo, for critiquing scientific literature, shining a spotlight on medical misogyny and putting calls to action into plain English.
HealthSense UK, known for promoting evidence-based healthcare and transparency, rarely gives this honour outside of academic circles – making Kath’s achievement even more impressive.
The HealthSense Annual Award has been running for more than 30 years (since 1993) and is given to someone who has contributed to evidence-based medicine, the promotion of ethical practice in healthcare or the public understanding of medicine. A list of previous winners can be found here.
The Awards ceremony takes place at the Royal Society of Medicine in London.
- Surgical mesh is made of polypropylene plastic and used as a quick fix medical device to strengthen weak tissue in operations to repair prolapse, incontinence in women and men, hernias and for some women in reconstructions as part of breast cancer treatment.
- Sling The Mesh campaign has led to a list of successes including one type of mesh suspended, surgical mesh reclassified from IIb to III and calls to track patients with implants – helping lead to the Medical Devices Outcomes Registry. In addition, the campaign led to calls for compensation for mesh injured women as part of the groundbreaking First Do No Harm report. The campaign successfully lobbied for draft legislation for transparency on payments in the health sector (Sunshine legislation) and the group’s advocacy led to the NHS Pelvic Floor Registry, which includes data on pelvic organ prolapse and stress urinary incontinence. The registry aims to collect and audit data on pelvic floor procedures, including device usage and outcomes, to improve patient safety and care standards.
