Claudia Knowles is a Lived Experience Advisory Board Manager on the ENTRUST programme in the Department of Psychology at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience. She holds expertise in codesign and developing support services for people diagnosed with cancer.

After completing her undergraduate degree in Philosophy at the University of Bristol, Claudia spent almost a decade designing support services and products at cancer charities, the NHS and local councils. While studying her MSc in Healthcare and Design, Claudia codesigned a writing-based support journal for women with breast cancer that is now used by the UK’s leading breast cancer charity.

In 2023, Claudia graduated with Distinction Honours in the Psychology MSc from the University of Westminster, where her research focused on experiences of Long Covid in people from minoritised ethnic backgrounds, and started the Counselling Psychology Doctorate training at the New School of Psychotherapy and Counselling.

After joining the Heathcote Lab at King’s College London in 2023, Claudia setup the codesign strategy for the EMBody study – bringing young adult cancer survivors into the centre of the research project. She helped secure funding from the Wellcome Trust for the ENTRUST programme, that explores interoceptive mechanisms in people diagnosed with cancer.

Claudia currently leads on codesign and Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) as the Lived Experience Advisory Board manager, bringing her professional expertise as well as her personal experience of bowel cancer.

Claudia has received the Inspiring Communicator award from Charity Comms for her work at Breast Cancer Now, and the Public Service Innovation award from Digital Leaders for her work at the London Borough of Hackney building and managing an outreach team for at-risk residents in the borough. Her work on the breast cancer support app, Becca, was also awarded Best Health Project by the British Medical Association.

Research interests 

• Health Psychology
• Psycho-oncology
• Codesign and PPI

Expertise and public engagement 

• Claudia has published articles in the Financial Times among other publications, and has delivered speeches at conferences for her work with breast cancer charities and local councils, focusing on the power of lived experience in developing services and products.
• Claudia continues to run post-treatment support courses with the charities Breast Cancer Now and Future Dreams for people with a breast cancer diagnosis.
• She has also been a guest on multiple podcasts, including the Shine Cancer podcast discussing Reconnecting With Your Body After Cancer and the 100 Stories podcast discussing the breast cancer journal she codeveloped with Black Women Rising founder, Leanne Pero.