KPOW! (Know the Power of Words)

15 July, 2024

A play inspired by group of doctors working for City Health Care Partnership’s Macmillan service about what it’s like to live with (and beyond) cancer has now been turned into a film called KPOW! (Know the Power Of Words), to show everyone who has contact with cancer patients how powerful their words can be.

Dr Kate Thomas, one of the doctors who commissioned the original play, explained how it came about. “It started with a conversation between Dr Hannah Coysh and Allyson Kent, who is living with cancer. They met at 5K Your Way, a Parkrun initiative for people impacted by a cancer diagnosis.

“Allyson talked about her diagnosis and experience and what she’d learned. Hannah thought, ‘That sounds like a play!’ and the idea was born.”

With funding from CHCP, Hannah, Kate and Dr Marie Cohen commissioned playwright Libby Pearson to write a play to be performed at a Macmillan conference in June 2023. It was extremely well received and Allyson felt that it needed to go further and be seen by more people, so the next step to was to make a film.

The film was funded by Humber and North Yorkshire Cancer Alliance and Macmillan Cancer Support and premiered at Hull Truck Theatre on Monday 8 July.

You can watch the film on YouTube; just click the link below.