Research User Group Newsletter Keele University RUG Spring / Summer edition | Page 20

SPOTLIGHT ON...
IMPLEMENTATION
T
wenty years ago Magda Skrybant was
starting out life at university.  Following her 
parents advice to 'make the most of it', she seized
every opportunity available to her, eventually
going on to study a Master’s degree in Poland,
followed by a PhD in Polish history.
Fast forward to life now, and Magda is extremely
successful. Working full-time in a job she loves,
she has been happily married for ten years and
has a three year old daughter. Amazingly, she’s
achieved all this despite the fact that for the last
13 years she has been living with several
auto-immune conditions.
Magda is now a PPI Adviser at Birmingham
University and we are also very lucky to have her
on board here at Keele, as part of the LINK group
(Lay Involvement in Knowledge Mobilisation).
She said: “It came as a real shock to me when I was
diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis when I was
doing my fieldwork for my PhD.  At first I had a
swollen knee (it must be from all that walking, I
thought) and then I had a bad wrist (probably all
that typing) and then a bad elbow (but hang on,
I’ve never played tennis) so I went to see a doctor.
“Being unwell was a new experience for me, and I
wasn’t really equipped to deal with the pain, the
nosebleeds, the tiredness, and the feeling that this
shouldn’t be happening to me. Whilst I was having
all these health problems, I was part of what can
only be described as some sort of circus:
appointments with the GP, appointments at the
hospital, blood tests, x-rays, more blood tests,
trying this drug, that drug, this drug with that
drug, these two drugs and that drug (but you only
take that one on a Wednesday), more blood tests,
going back to the doctor, going back to the
hospital, taking these three drugs, taking this drug
because you’re on the first two drugs, stopping
the third drug because of these test results and so
on.  
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“I think Public Involvement is something that you
fall into, and that is pretty much what happened
with me - I thought PPI was something to do with
banks selling you stuff that you didn’t need.  I was
sitting in the hospital waiting room (I spend quite
a lot of my time doing that) and whilst reading one
of the hospital newspapers I came across an
advert from the Birmingham and Black Country
CLAHRC looking for patients who were
interested in the way services were being
designed and wanted to have their say.  
“Now this really sparked my interest: I’d stacked
up many hours of experience and knew I could
provide lots of insights into what it’s actually like
to live with various conditions.
“Also, anyone that knows me also knows that I’m
never short of an opinion or two: this was right up
my street. Until that point, I thought medical
research was just testing drugs, I had no idea that
it was so much more.
“I remember my first meeting vividly. I walked into
a room feeling slightly awkward, convinced
everyone was watching me. I tried to hide behind
the tea urn that certainly wasn’t designed for
people with arthritis but then I was sure everyone
was watching me as water cascaded onto the
table and dripped on the floor. 
SPOTLIGHT ON IMPLEMENTATION 20