With 43 attendees, NIHR Leicester BRC based PhD Student Holly Drover’s recent exhibition shed light on a critical yet often overlooked aspect of healthcare: how individuals perceive and manage breathlessness.
This event, part of her PhD project under the Wellcome Trust Leicestershire Health Inequalities Improvement Programme, used the power of art to reveal diverse experiences of breathlessness across South Asian and White communities. It’s essential reading for anyone looking to understand how cultural and emotional differences shape patient experiences and clinical care.
Collaborating with artist Mita Solanky, participants created artworks that depicted how they felt their breathlessness—through temperature, texture, and even emotional states. These personal expressions were accompanied by discussions and reflections, highlighting key differences in the emotional impact of breathlessness between ethnic groups. The exhibition underscored the importance of clinicians considering cultural nuances when addressing breathlessness, urging healthcare providers to adapt their care to these unique perspectives.
Holly Drover mentioned, “Our community gallery event showcased artwork that expressed participants’ experiences of breathlessness to their friends and family, alongside clinicians and researchers. It was a well-attended celebration of the project that helps us to further understand the complexity of breathlessness and how it is an individual experience that may be influenced by ethnicity.”