Sarcoma Specialist Nurse – Healthcare Professional Engagement Lead
Sam Hackett has spent three decades caring for people with sarcoma. She met her first patient during a night shift in 1994, a conversation that set the course for her career. She went on to work on the Teenage and Young Adult unit at University College Hospital before spending 17 years on the sarcoma service at the Royal Marsden Hospital.
In 2015 Sam joined Sarcoma UK to help establish the charity’s Support Line, which provides specialist information and guidance to anyone affected by sarcoma. Over the past nine years she has personally handled about 2,000 enquiries. Sam sees the Support Line as a daily “drip feed of insight”, helping the charity spot emerging patterns in diagnostic pathways, subtype-specific issues and the experiences of gynaecological patients.
Now Healthcare Professional Engagement Lead, Sam collaborates with clinicians across the country to share knowledge, raise awareness and drive service improvements. Her projects address inequalities linked to tumour subtype, tumour site and geography, including uneven access to clinical trials.
A key ambition is to reach people earlier in their diagnostic journey. Sam works with diagnostic hubs nationwide, delivers education and awareness sessions for GPs and trainees and offers one-to-one support for sarcoma clinical nurse specialists and allied health professionals.
Bringing the sarcoma healthcare community together is central to her role. She organises networking and best-practice forums that inspire the next generation of specialists and support future workforce planning.
Beyond Sarcoma UK, Sam is a trustee of Desmoid Aid UK and a committed Arsenal supporter.
