We connect the dots between health and life to create communications with impact.

Bringing  healthcare to life

About Us

Our Services

A winning strategy is simple to understand and execute. Finding that simplicity is the hard part.
We help clients re-think their direction, interrogate complex problems and offer fresh thinking to ensure their strategy lands well with stakeholders and delivers on its promise.

Strategic counsel

Campaigns that push boundaries drive people to change their behaviours and attitudes.
By bringing together a strategy rooted in audience insights, a spark of creativity and executional brilliance, we create bold, omnichannel disease awareness campaigns that make waves and result in positive change.

Disease awareness and public health

It’s no longer enough to just listen to patients and understand their needs. Patient collaboration and co-creation must be designed into the plan from start to finish.
New approaches that involve patients in the development, design, and delivery of healthcare innovations mean they’ll be adopted by the communities that made them.

Patient engagement and advocacy

Improving patient outcomes requires high-value medical education that makes a lasting impression. 
To have long-term impact, we must make data and opinion meaningful by understanding their consequences within the medical landscape and the patient community.

Medical education and scientific engagement

We understand that employee satisfaction has a direct impact on company performance, because that’s how we run our business.
Whether your company is going through a change management process, or you want to launch a new initiative or recognise achievements, we have the know-how to get your teams engaged.

Internal communications and employee engagement

We build long-term brand loyalty and shape company reputation for the better. 
We do this by understanding the environment, exploring ways in which we can initiate positive action and identifying opportunities for collaboration.

Brand and franchise communications

In our technology-infused world, no campaign is complete without a degree of online activation. 
Whether it’s building a website, developing a digital strategy, or creating content that resonates across platforms, CHC can help you approach the online landscape with confidence.

Digital and social campaigns

As the volume of content we consume every day increases, our attention spans shrink, and trends pass more quickly. 
We can help you find the right space and words for your story, so that your message is seen, heard and actioned by the audiences that matter to you.

Media relations and storytelling

Our Team

‘What would you like to be when you grow up?’ This is the question you always get asked as a child, and like most children over the years, my answer would range from an astronaut to a firefighter. But I’d always follow it up with … ‘but I love science too!’. 
I was very interested in science from a young age, which carried through to university, where I chose a degree in Biological Sciences. Towards the end of the three years, we’d have the compulsory ‘career lectures’, where they would spend an hour telling us all about where our degree could take us. To my surprise, despite the broad nature of my chosen course, my options seemed very limited. I could either:
<ol><li>Get a job in the lab or</li><li>Become a teacher.</li></ol>
This was frustrating because although I wanted a job in science, neither of these options excited me. 
Fast forward to the end of my degree, and still my options seem limited. I even went to our university counsellor who suggested I try being a laboratory technician as ‘this is what science mainly consists of’. Then one day, by pure chance, I came across ‘healthcare comms’, and I remember not having a clue what this was. No one I knew had ventured this way before, and I was intrigued. After researching online what it entailed, it was exciting, but I won’t lie, still a bit of a mystery. No one seemed to be able to give me a definitive answer, but there was one thing I knew for sure … it wasn’t in a lab or in a school. Shortly after, I happened to come across CHC (again I’m not really sure how), and the rest is history. 
I’m now a year into my first role in healthcare communications, and I’ve been truly immersed into the world of healthcare. In such a short space of time I’ve been given the opportunity to learn so much and develop my career in a way that I never thought was possible. I could write a whole blog (or four…maybe this is why no one could give me a definitive answer) on my learnings so far, however, to summarise some of the things I have discovered: 
<ol><li>Science is part of your everyday work. Finding a job outside of a lab that still incorporated science was something I was slightly concerned about, especially since I chose a degree that was so science heavy. However, there are SO many opportunities within healthcare comms to use my research skills and incorporate science-based content into my everyday work.</li><li>Every day is different. Not only do you get to learn about many different areas of science, but you also get to be involved in so many different types of work, from writing blogs and newsletters to organising webinars about HPV and writing reports about vaccinations… the list goes on. Each and every project is so unique, which makes it super exciting.</li><li>Clients welcome you as part of their team. At CHC we are privileged to work with many amazing clients, who see us as an extension of their team. I have been able to meet so many people and have had the opportunity to build relationships with them very quickly.</li><li>The world of healthcare comms is vast. Working in healthcare comms you are quickly introduced to the vast, vast world of pharma and healthcare. I have been able to get an insight into how they work, the different functions and the people across all levels of the industry. I have also had so many opportunities to develop my personal skills and increase my confidence too, including being part of the team that presented and won two pitches, leading client calls and being the go-to contact for everyday work.</li></ol>
 There’s so much more to science careers than just lab work or education. Of course, if you want to go down those routes then that’s totally cool. However if like me, you’re looking for something slightly different, healthcare comms is your answer. In my opinion, it’s the hidden science career. It allows you to express yourself freely, to work with so many amazing clients, whilst also continually learning and applying science into the context of your everyday work.
I’m well aware that there’s so much more to learn; however, I’m excited to continue embracing the world of healthcare and I encourage anyone who is thinking about it to do the same. After all, what have you got to lose?

Team insights

The hidden science career: My adventure in healthcare communications – so far

When we embarked on the journey of completing 10 challenges to commemorate 10 years of CHC, we couldn't have predicted that we'd find ourselves wearing some very attractive waders, donning elbow-length gloves, and wading into some questionably smelling waist-high water. Nonetheless, nothing really bonds you as a team like a hard day of physical work, a healthy dose of laughter and sitting in a pub in the sun, smelling like pondweed.
Picture this: a typical British summer day – rainy, grey and muggy. The CHC team gathered, clad in sensible shoes, and waterproof gear, ready to embark on a day of volunteer conservation work. We began the day brimming with energy, clean and blissfully unaware of what awaited us. It’s safe to say we emerged the other side, pretty exhausted and covered in pond water, algae and reed roots. Before I dig any deeper, I apologise in advance for the abundance of nature puns in this piece; it seems they've become second nature to us.
On our way from the station to the conservation centre, Polly and I speculated about the likelihood of our group ending up in the pond itself, out of all the possible activities we could have chosen. From building habits for the local wildlife, cutting the grass, pruning the trees or sowing seeds there was a wide opportunity for all nature-related activities. However, on turning the corner, we were greeted by six pairs of striking green waders, ready and waiting for us.
Our base for the day was <a href="https://www.tcv.org.uk/london/urbanecology/">Lavender Pond Nature Reserve</a>, a small nature reserve nestled in the heart of Rotherhithe. This little haven of nature was born from the old logging docks and serves as a green sanctuary for the community to explore and learn about the natural world.
After a thorough safety briefing, the most enthusiastic members of our team eagerly volunteered to get their hands dirty, donning the iconic waders (see the pictures below). Our mission for the day? To remove the overgrown reeds obstructing the locals' view of the pond and replant as many as we could for another conservation group's reserve. Simple, right? Oh, how the blissful ignorance of our desk jobs betrayed us. Green thumbed we are not…
<figure><img src="https://d33q76zddxsi8i.cloudfront.net/2_2023-09-07-115526_bfwx.png" alt="" /></figure>

Yet, despite our initial trepidation, the team tackled the challenge with enthusiasm, manoeuvring through the algae-filled pond like seasoned waterfowl. Laughter, screams, retches, echoed from the water. It's safe to say that no one felt entirely in their natural habitat. But it was taken on with gusto! 
Throughout the day, our team worked tirelessly in the water, celebrating small victories like pulling out a "good rooter" or a "multi-root." The CHC team has a knack for turning anything into a competition or a source of amusement. While this aquatic adventure unfolded, the rest of the team planted reeds and absorbed a wealth of knowledge from our leaders about the local area and various aspects of nature. <figure><img src="https://d33q76zddxsi8i.cloudfront.net/4_2023-09-07-115528_hxkt.png" alt="" /></figure>

In classic English summer fashion, we experienced the highest rain fall of the month…but luckily, it was only the morning, as the day spanned two seasons, and by afternoon, the heat was sweltering. I tell you what doesn’t mix well – waders and the heat. It didn't take long for talk of cold pints and chips to fill the air. We headed to the pub, where drinks were raised, laughter was abundant, and awards were playfully distributed. The nature puns flowed freely, reaching a level of hilarity that could only be described as fun-gi.
Jokes aside, the day provided an excellent opportunity for our team to come together and step out of our comfort zones, momentarily setting aside daily agency life. As we reflect on our accomplishments as a team, we've been pond-ering the significance of making a difference not just for a day but through the small changes we can incorporate into our daily routines. <figure><img src="https://d33q76zddxsi8i.cloudfront.net/3_2023-09-07-115527_gcwq.png" alt="" /></figure>
As part of our next challenge, we're encouraging the broader CHC team to adopt or continue one small sustainable habit. Collectively, these habits will create a significant impact. We'll keep you updated on our progress and the positive changes we hope to inspire, even within our small team.

Challenge Five: Green work makes the team work

How many times have you asked yourself “what kind of leader am I or do I want to be?” After attending a great training session, I encouraged some of the team to try the Inspirational Leadership: Insight to Action tool to find out more about their individual leadership styles so that we could better play to our own strengths and each other’s. 
Working in any agency means working collaboratively across various account and cross-divisional teams, with external suppliers, and with our clients. It is, therefore, imperative that we are able to adapt and work well with a myriad of individuals that have different strengths and ways of working, so that we can achieve our goals and our clients’ goals
Now, picture your ‘dream team’ in your own mind. You’ve probably opted for people who think and work in a similar way to yourself. Whilst this may help in the short term, do you end up just working in an echo chamber where everyone agrees? Does it push you to deliver the best work you can? What happens when you bring people together who don’t think like you and work or communicate in a different way? That’s when things get exciting. The challenge, and the beauty, can come from seeing these differences as a valuable way to gain strength from collaboration and reap the rewards!
This all sounds very idyllic, but do we always understand our own strengths, and how easy is it to identify them in our team members? 
The Inspirational Leadership: Insight to Action tool is based on research findings from the Department of Trade &amp; Industry, in partnership with the Chartered Management Institute. Its purpose is to help leaders identify their natural leadership styles and strengths so that they can shape their roles and those of their team accordingly.1 
Completing the questionnaire (available for free <a href="https://www.inspiredleadership.org.uk/">here</a>) takes just 20 minutes and provides you with a report that breaks down your ratings across four leadership dimensions and 18 attributes, including things like ‘team builder’, ‘enabler’, ‘visionary’ and ‘legacy builder’. 
It's not just about having a group of individuals; it's about having the right mix of personalities and strengths to make a better team.
After completing the questionnaire, members of our team re-grouped to discuss our own strengths and weaknesses, what results surprised us, and which didn’t. This sparked conversations about the ways in which we can lean on each other more in particular areas or learn from each other – and ultimately it showed us that together, we are a stronger team because of our differences. 
The results were useful in validating what I thought of as some of my own strengths, and perhaps unsurprisingly, reflected those that I value highly as well. What I found interesting was the suggestion that although you can upskill in your weaker areas, you can also partner with people who have complementary strengths. Great advice when building a team!
Emily and Kirsty also completed the questionnaire and shared their thoughts: 
Emily: “I've done a few of these questionnaires during my time in the industry. It's interesting to see how my strengths and weaknesses have evolved over time, yet, much like Jess, my leadership attributes align closely with my personal values. I believe this helps me to be an authentic and 'human centred' leader – whilst still getting things done!” 
Kirsty: "Early on in my career, my first line manager asked me what type of leader I wanted to be. This has stuck with me for years, and it's reassuring to see those qualities that I value so highly come out in my results. At the same time, it's helpful to be mindful of the areas that don't come as naturally to me, so I can work on building them further, or collaborate with someone who can bring their expertise to a task." 
We all bring different strengths to a team. Some individuals are more analytical and data-driven, while others are more creative and intuitive; some are more methodical and sequential in how they approach tasks, while others maintain momentum and energy by jumping from project to project; some are better at thinking about the bigger picture, while others are better at focusing on details and executing tasks. When these different strengths are combined, the team benefits from a diverse range of perspectives and skills.
One of our CHC values is ‘connecting as a team’, and we believe that ‘bringing healthcare to life’ requires us to bring our life to healthcare. This means creating a culture where everyone is supported, valued and respected. You can read more about our values <a href="https://www.clarkhealthcomms.com/about">here</a>. 
We take this one step further though. Not only do we support and respect each other’s differences, we look to celebrate them and capitalise on them – to use them to make our team (and the work we deliver) stronger.
In aiming for sameness, you may think you are making life easier, but you are making your team weaker.
Ultimately, a successful team is one that recognises and embraces the unique contributions of each individual and leverages those strengths to better achieve common goals.
It’s always interesting to learn more about yourself, but we feel this insight into our own strengths, and each other’s, is going to have really positive impact on the way we work. 
Do you consider your team members’ individual strengths when building account teams? Do you enjoy working with people who approach tasks from a totally different perspective? 
1 <a href="https://www.inspiredleadership.org.uk/">https://www.inspiredleadership.org.uk/</a>

Thought leadership

Celebrating differences: How valuing individual strengths can improve team performance

“Non, je veux savoir les resultats de touts mes tests medicaux. C’est mon droit de les connaître pour mieux prendre soin de ma santé.”
“No, I want to know the results of all my medical tests. It’s my right to know the results, so that I take better control of my health.”
I call my mom, who is 76 years old and French but based in Canada, three times a week. She usually jabbers on at me in French about her latest pickleball endeavours (yes, it’s a real thing), her daily five-mile walks, or her volunteer friends from the local hospital where she spends every Friday helping people get to their appointments. 
She was in a right huff on this particular day. She’d gone to get a bone density scan two weeks before and was infuriated that her doctor hadn’t yet called to tell her the results, despite already being on medication for osteoporosis. She also raged about how for the past 40 years of living in Canada, she’d always had an annual check-up or health MOT, but that the government had now stopped them due to budget constraints. She now felt worried that doctors weren’t proactively looking after her health. 
Now, in my opinion, my mother is a well-educated, strong, and independent woman. She carries a notebook with her everywhere she goes and writes everything down: from the podcasts she’s listened to that she needs to tell me about (she calls them ‘pot-casts’), to the flowers that were in bloom on her walk and even all her results from health tests (yes, even though they are available online). 
On our call I explained to her that here in the UK, you usually don’t get your test results unless the doctor spots something abnormal that needs to be investigated further. I also told her that not everyone wants to know, can understand, or can even begin to process, what the test results mean. Whilst she could empathise with many of these reasons, she was still shocked. For her, she owns her health and like everything else in her life, she wants to have full control of it. She believes that it’s up to her to know the levels of various vitamins in her body, track her bone density, and understand how her body is changing because of ageing. 
I thought she was being pedantic, but as alluded to in our recent blog, I’m definitely the type of person who knows what I need to do, but don’t always want to hear the hard-hitting truth that my doctor will serve up to me. 
So, I thought I’d do a bit of digging. Turns out, maybe I should take a leaf out of my mother’s book (her little notebook, to be specific).
A recent paper published in <a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2802672">JAMA</a>
surveyed 8,139 people in the US about their attitudes to having immediate access to test results via an online portal. An astounding 96% of them wanted to see their results immediately. Now, the average age of respondents was 64 years old, which made me wonder if perhaps this was something more important to people as they got older? 
Turns out I was wrong, and this time I didn’t need to scour through medical publications – I just had to look in my bathroom cupboard. My husband (who is nowhere near 64) has been using <a href="https://clarkhealthcomms.sharepoint.com/Shared%20Documents/CHC/CHC%20Marketing/4.%20Marketing%202023/Blogs/Taking%20control%20of%20your%20health/thriva.co">Thriva</a>
for years. He pays to prick his own finger with a needle, and on a quarterly basis, sends off the vial of blood to the company’s testing centre. Then, in his email, he is sent something that looks like this: 
<figure><img src="https://d33q76zddxsi8i.cloudfront.net/THRIVA-results.jpg" alt="" /></figure>
 
In 2022, Thriva was in the top 10 of Europe’s fastest-growing companies according to the <a href="https://www.ft.com/ft1000-2022">FT</a>, with a compound annual growth rate of 322%. The company was built on the idea that blood test kits could keep you out of hospital ⁠— if used to identify and address problems before they spiral out of control. Their simple, visual platform helps to address the challenges I flagged to my mother about one’s ability to understand the myriad of health tests – it simply explains the various measures, plots them on a nicely coloured graph, and voila! Results that anyone can understand at their fingertips. 
In this article from <a href="https://sifted.eu/articles/thriva-founder-interview/">Sifted</a>, the founders of Thriva did acknowledge that their biggest challenge was people like me: “Logical arguments in health often don’t win. We know preventative health is a good idea but individuals tend to exist on a ‘live today’ basis, which means they think it’s a really good idea, but don’t actually act.”
With preventable, long-term conditions being the largest cause of illness and death in the UK, it’s time we leveraged the wealth of resources that exist to take an active role in our health and wellbeing. And this is what will allow us to connect the dots between health and life – by taking control of our health before problems arise (or before it’s really too late), we can make the necessary lifestyle changes so that we can live long, healthy and fruitful lives well into our old age.

Mother knows best: How a 76-year old took control of her health

Look, let’s not beat around the bush. Yes, we can see the irony. Yes, we work in healthcare communications and yes, we spend every working day encouraging people to seek healthcare advice to ensure the correct diagnosis, lifestyle change or treatment is implemented early. But do we always practice what we preach? The honest answer is no. So, let’s talk about it, because if you’re reading this and you also work in the healthcare industry, it might sound all too familiar. 
We’re not here to lecture you. We don’t need to tell you that delaying seeing a healthcare professional can impact health outcomes, including mortality (yes scary, but it needs to be said). We’ve worked on enough disease awareness campaigns throughout the years to know better. But there’s something within us that stops us from booking that much needed GP, dentist or physio appointment – the list goes on. 

Everyone’s busy, and we’re all human. But we can’t advise others about positively changing behaviour if we’re not holding the big old healthcare mirror up to ourselves too. As one of our 10 Challenges for 10 Years of CHC, we’ve decided to challenge our team to nip their inner health hypocrite in the bud for the rest of the year and get those lingering health concerns addressed. 
We’ve all got different reasons for not accessing healthcare when we need it. We’ve explored some of the most common barriers to seeking healthcare. While many of these barriers require system level change, some can be overcome by the individual. The first step of any behaviour change is to be conscious of your thinking and actions, so that you can change them. So, what’s stopping us from taking action?

1. Trust: Sharing health concerns and symptoms, seeking advice and making decisions all require trust in the healthcare professional and service being used. Mistrust and misinformation can prevent access to healthcare for many people
2. Accessibility: Navigating the healthcare system is not always easy with multiple barriers along the way from language and digital literacy to travel and time to attend appointments
3. Shame: Perceived embarrassment and stigma around seeking health advice for ‘taboo’ issues, such as mental and sexual health, substance abuse, menopause or dementia can prevent people from seeing a GP or nurse
4. Fear: We all know that feeling of ‘what if it’s really serious?’ So, burying our head in the sand can feel like the easier option at the time
In addition to the points above, we can’t forget good old ‘Dr Google’. Pre-Google, we went to our trusty family doctor or maybe popped into the local pharmacy, but this is no longer the case. With access to a vast array of online health information at our fingertips (literally), faster-paced lifestyles, the rise of artificial intelligence, and continued pressure on NHS resources, having an in-person, pre-booked appointment can feel very disconnected from our very connected lives. And this means we can often put off making that all-important appointment.
We’ve made progress with our challenge and feel better for it! Since writing this blog and exploring our own barriers, members of the CHC team have taken this latest challenge head-on. Across the team, we’ve tackled a range of health worries that we’ve been avoiding for too long. An odd-looking mole was checked out, and an abdominal ultrasound was completed – both were given the all-clear. We registered for a new doctor following a city move and visited the optician for what we now know is a lazy eye! Without getting into detail or oversharing, we have collectively felt a sense of relief to finally have had these health worries checked out.

Look out for our next blog on how some of our team, and their families, are going one step further to look after their health.

Challenge Four: Holding up the big old healthcare mirror to ourselves

Irrespective of who you follow on your social channels, there’s one topic that has dominated the headlines recently: ChatGPT. With over 100 million users signing up to the platform in two months, and 13 million unique visitors per day in January1, there’s been no escaping the topic. 
Many industries are now grappling to understand how this new and emerging technology could be utilised to change their everyday work and the opportunities it could unlock. As the noise around ChatGPT swirls, we’ve taken time to consider what impact this mind-blowing AI tool could have on certain healthcare audiences. 
Haven’t heard of ChatGPT? <a href="https://openai.com/blog/chatgpt/">Here’s a link to find out more.</a>
How could it impact patients?
One of the most talked-about possibilities of ChatGPT for patients is as a potential replacement for the notorious ‘Dr Google’. We’ve all been there – a small cut on your hand or funny feeling in your little toe and we’re Googling away, trying to decipher which life-threatening condition it could be. Then eventually, we book a doctor’s appointment to find out it’s nothing to worry about. 
Here’s where ChatGPT comes into action: it can provide personalised and timely responses to patients’ queries, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, based on the wealth of health information it’s trained on. By being incorporated into a safe and confidential healthcare platform or app, such as Babylon Health, it could also help in instances where patients are hesitant to seek care due to stigmas or fear of being judged about sensitive health issues. 
Alongside answering questions, ChatGPT also has the potential to help patients with chronic conditions manage their health more effectively. Imagine being able to use continuous monitoring and personalised reminders via an integrated platform, to share timely interventions with patients, leading to better control of their conditions and improved outcomes.
Alongside the positives that come with AI innovations, there are of course numerous questions and concerns to be addressed. For example, in its current form, ChatGPT has very limited knowledge of the world after 20212, so users must be mindful of this knowledge time gap, given the speed at which science and healthcare progress. This type of limitation must be considered for real-world applications, especially ones as serious as patient care.
How about healthcare professionals (HCPs)?
HCPs are notoriously busy, having to balance time spent on patient care with routine administrative tasks. By automating routine tasks, such as appointment scheduling, ChatGPT could enable HCPs to spend more time with patients.
Harnessing the analytical power of ChatGPT could also help HCPs provide more personalised care by offering patient-specific recommendations and tailored treatment plans. By analysing patients’ medical histories and data in seconds, ChatGPT could provide HCPs with valuable insights, such as drug-drug interactions and possible adverse effects, enabling them to make more informed decisions.
Additionally, if it’s provided access to an up-to-date library of medical literature, ChatGPT could also provide HCPs with the latest information and guidance, helping them to stay on top of advances in their fields.
And not most importantly, but importantly for us… healthcare communications agencies?
So, will ChatGPT replace agency teams? By analysing health data and social media trends it can provide valuable insights about specific audiences, which in theory, should enable agencies to efficiently develop targeted programmes that will resonate with these audiences. 
It’s not looking good for us agency-folk so far, but surely humans are needed to turn those insights into outputs right?
Wrong! ChatGPT also utilises its ability to understand natural language to create audience- and tone-specific outputs, streamlining the content creation process (don’t believe us? Ask ChatGPT to write you a song about the pharmaceutical industry in the style of Ed Sheeran, and then another one in the style of The Clash. As we said before, Mind. Blowing.) 
But it’s not all bad news! There is still a vital role for us agency-humans to play. Think about it – if every agency starts developing content in the same way and using the same AI tools, the outputs will end up being bland and similar. So yes, maybe ChatGPT can provide us with audience insights and develop a first draft, but we must continue to use our creative and unique human input to add meaning, make it nuanced, and ensure it stands out from the crowd to create the desired impact.
Phew. 
What does this all mean for healthcare? 
While the potential benefits of ChatGPT and other AI tools for healthcare are immense, there are also some significant challenges and considerations that need to be addressed. One of the main ones is ensuring the accuracy and reliability of the information provided by these tools. As with any AI, the output is only as good as the data it’s trained on. It’s therefore essential the user applies their own critical thinking to interpret the outputs and figure out the best way to use them. If the challenges can be addressed, then the potential is both exciting and a little scary – could we be on the cusp of the next revolution in healthcare?
References
<ol><li>ChatGPT sets record for fastest-growing user base - analyst note. Reuters. Accessed at: <a href="https://www.reuters.com/technology/chatgpt-sets-record-fastest-growing-user-base-analyst-note-2023-02-01/">https://www.reuters.com/techno...</a> Last accessed: 22/02/2023.</li><li>ChatGPT: Everything you need to know about OpenAI's GPT-3 tool. Accessed at: <a href="https://www.sciencefocus.com/future-technology/gpt-3/">https://www.sciencefocus.com/f...</a> Last accessed: 02/02/2023.</li></ol>

ChatGPT: A new AI-ge in healthcare?

As the health of our team drives the health of our business, we tried ‘No Social Sundays’ for our second challenge in our 10 challenges for 10 years of CHC series. Did we succeed in avoiding social media every Sunday for the whole of October? Well, not exactly. But here's why we’re not ashamed to admit this. 
The team had very different approaches to this challenge. Jess – the only one to succeed – set a Sunday morning reminder on her phone each week. As for the rest of us… well, we struggled. Scrolling through social media has become so ingrained in our daily lives that we often found ourselves mid-scroll without even realising it. And, as Candice honestly admitted, some of us didn’t even try to avoid indulging in this pleasurable pastime. 
At the end of the challenge, we asked our team to reflect on whether social media has a positive or negative impact on their mental health. Here’s what some of the team had to say:
“Instagram can be great; it enables me to keep up to date with my favourite music artists, clothing companies and my close friends and family. However, Instagram naturally promotes comparison, a hallmark evil of social media. In a podcast I listened to recently, they suggested pausing every time you reach for your phone and go to open Instagram. Pause and take note of how you feel…it is very rarely when you feel good. You will often do it when you feel stressed, anxious or stuck at home with no plans and a bit of FOMO (fear of missing out). I find this is the cause and catalyst of feeling bad about myself, so I have dramatically reduced my use of Instagram.” – Will 
“I think both [positive and negative]. I use it to communicate with my friends, watch cute animal videos and keep up to date with pop culture, the news, and even politics sometimes (I’m ashamed). But there is definitely a toxic side to it, such as beauty standards, the ‘addictive’ nature of it, and of course the studies showing how it has impacted attention spans.” – Georgie 
“It depends on who you follow! I remember I used to be absolutely enraged by this influencer I followed on social media – there was nothing “wrong” with what she said or did, and I obviously never commented on her posts, but for some reason, they really got to me. I would sometimes spend 30 minutes of my lunch ranting to my husband about her life. I then realised I had the choice to simply unfollow her. And presto, she was gone.” – Candice 
Realistically, social media isn’t going away any time soon - it’s part of our society and the work we do, but this challenge gave us the opportunity to pause and reflect on how it’s impacting our lives. Overall, self-awareness was the most useful outcome of the challenge. By becoming more aware of how we use social media, we can reap more of the benefits and fewer of the risks. We can choose to let social media empower us, by reminding ourselves that we have control over what information we consume. 
So, whether that’s avoiding social media for a set number of hours or days per week, unfollowing things that impact us negatively or using it purely to connect with people, our team is taking steps to change the way we use social media. 
Perhaps failing this challenge and becoming more aware of what does and does not make us happy wasn’t so bad after all?

News

Challenge Two: No Social Sundays

With a few of our team on holiday and some struck down by illness (well, that was their excuse for getting out of the walk!), six members of our team courageously tackled the 10 miles from Vauxhall to Tower Bridge and back. Completing the loop in under three hours! Whilst spending your Friday night walking around in the rain might not be everyone’s cup of tea, as we’ve said before – we like a challenge. 
Fuelled by tea and biscuits at the start line, the joy of our Canadian-raised teammate (Candice) discovering the joys of Toffee Crisps, and Roland’s outrage that Freddos have yet again changed shape, we set off. Spirits were high, which meant it was only natural that it started pouring with rain the minute we passed the start line. There was no going back… we had set ourselves a challenge and we WERE going to complete it. 
Luckily the rain didn’t stick around for long! Despite some members of the team – who shall not be named – asking ‘are we there yet?’ at mile three and another couple – who shall also not be named – missing a turn, we powered through with witty repartee for entertainment. Well, I say witty, but I’m ashamed to report that at one point, our conversations turned to where the best place was to hang washing out in our houses, so perhaps it’s fairer to say it was a long three hours…. But the medals were worth it and the sense of achievement even better. Not to mention the BBQ and glass of fizz at the end! At CHC, the health of the team drives the health of our business, and it was great to get some exercise together, challenge ourselves (mentally and physically) and try something new. Here’s to the next challenge! Watch this space…<figure><img src="https://d33q76zddxsi8i.cloudfront.net/Untitled-design-36.png" alt="CHC team" /></figure>

Challenge One: 10 Miles for 10 Years

But as explained so well by <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/brianscudamore/2020/01/31/when-is-the-right-time-to-start-a-business/?sh=6cd2793e486b" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Forbes</a>, here’s the thing: There’s never a right time to start a business. There will never be an ideal moment. There will always be reasons to put it off. And so, it comes down to this: you have to create the ‘right time’. Because only you can make this happen – and if you’re waiting for the perfect moment, you just might be waiting forever. But how do you create this set of conditions that make it possible to make your dreams a reality? 
Well for me, creating the right conditions meant three things: 1. Having a family with faith in me – that I could do it and would be happier for it. 2. Having clients who valued me – with real confidence that I could compete with their current agencies (some of them very big!) and deliver great results. 3. Having a remote team of freelancers supporting me – trusted colleagues that I could partner with and grow with as the business evolved. And I must have done something right, as my family, and some of my first clients and remote team members are still with me today!
The challenge of starting an agency is one thing, the challenge of maintaining a successful agency for over 10 years is quite another! It’s certainly been a journey and of course, there have been ups, as well as some downs, along the way. Looking back, the main highlights have been the great programmes we developed and implemented with amazing clients alongside inspiring healthcare professionals that were rolled out all over the world. I feel immensely proud of what the team has achieved over the last decade, as well as what lies ahead as we continue to grow. To all those clients, partners, members of the team past and present, and my family, a massive thank you!
As we’ve been thinking about how best to celebrate 10 years as a successful independent healthcare communications agency, the team came up with the idea of doing 10 challenges to celebrate the 10 years we’ve been in business. Challenges that push us out of our comfort zone – some just a little, and others quite a lot. Either way, they’re all designed to bring us together, do some good and create some memories. 
So, keep your eyes peeled for our first round of challenges over the coming months and if you have any bright ideas and want to put us to the test, send us an idea for a challenge at <a href="mailto:hello@clarkhealthcomms.com" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">hello@clarkhealthcomms.com</a>.

Bringing healthcare to life