Penny Wright

Macmillan Principal Research Fellow

Penny's first degree was in psychology followed by a postgraduate qualification in social work. She worked as a social worker for seventeen years the last seven of these being based at a cancer hospital in Leeds. While working as an oncology social worker, Penny undertook a part-time Masters degree in Psychosocial Palliative Care. Penny moved to psychosocial oncology research in 1996 and was awarded a PhD in 2002.

Penny's main areas of interest include:

• assessment of social difficulties in routine cancer care,
• use of the internet to assess and support patients and
• use of electronic methods to collect and link Patient Reported Outcomes to other datasets with the aim of mapping the patient experience.

Penny has led two NIHR Research for Patient Benefit grants: one investigating the social impact of cancer on people of south Asian origin and the other on use of the internet for information exchange. Penny has a Macmillan Cancer Support Career Development Fellowship (2010 – 2012) and heads a small team of Macmillan funded researchers within POCPRG, the Applied Informatics and Cancer Care team (AICC).

Penny has been a member of the UK National Cancer Research Institute Psychosocial Oncology Study Group since 2003 and co-chairs the subgroup ‘Time of transition’; treasurer of the British Psychosocial Oncology Society (2007-2010) and is a current member of the National Cancer Survivorship Initiative working groups.

+44 (0)113 2068488