Rosemarie Thompson (14 Aug 1956 - 14 Jun 2023)

Our dearly beloved Rosemarie Thompson, wife, mother, champion for Black healthcare equalities, and Director of B’Me Against Cancer charity, passed away on June 14th. She made an incredible impact within the cancer community, highlighting inequalities and advocating for all who are affected, and she will be hugely missed.

Rose was inspired to help others by diagnoses within her own family, and she built on years of clinical experience in therapeutic radiography when she took on her role as BME Cancer Information specialist with one of Europe’s foremost cancer information charities. She worked tirelessly advising and collaborating with countless organisations and delivering speeches workshops and presentations to give a powerful voice to key issues especially by founding BME Cancer Communities (now B’Me Against Cancer) and launching the Hear Me Now reports in the House of Commons. She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2018.

Rose’s legacy will have a significant impact on cancer care, especially for those who suffer inequalities in cancer care. Her ethos was to treat the person and not the condition, hence the name of the charity she co-founded is ‘B’Me Against Cancer’.