I have been thinking about this: How can we support people’s ongoing need for relationships as their lives draw to a close? This may be especially important for people with a learning disability. To b...

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We’re excited to share Episode 3 of the KIND Research Group webinar series, focusing on people with a learning disability at the end of life. Almost 140 people joined us to hear about our research!The...

The DAPPLE team leads the way in co-production. The value of the work we do is in working in partnership with people with learning disabilities who bring their lived experience to this project.  One o...

A group of us from West Yorkshire are part of the Advisory Group for DAPPLE (the Advisory Group are a group of 'critical friends' who help guide the project and share their views). We are also members...

Even when you love your job as much as I do, January can often be a tough month to return to the office (mainly due to the weather). But the KIND Research Group started the year in style – with a team...

In December we were delighted to host a webinar introducing The DAPPLE Project. Presented by Irene, Amanda and Sunny live from the KIND Research Group headquarters at Kingston University, the session ...

The KIND (Kingston University Intellectual Disability) Research Group is a big team -there are 12 of us, working on different research projects!  It is also a unique team - we are the only research t...

Words matter. Names matter. Your name is part of your identity, it’s your visiting card. Hello, my name is… and what’s yours? You want to feel that your name fits you like a second skin. If your name ...

The importance of videos to our workOne of the first things Irene Tuffrey-Wijne told me when I joined Kingston University was this: when it comes to sharing our research, a video can be just as impact...

When I returned to our Kingston University office on Monday after a week away on Annual Leave, I was greeted by a washing line.  And no, that’s not the strangest thing we have here – the flying pig st...

Richard shares his thoughts on benefits for people with a learning disability.

We quite like making cups of tea in our office and we have a bit of a joke in the office about Jo’s tea-making skills. She hasn’t quite got it right yet and is still, after years of being at Kingston ...

Last week, some of our research team went away on a writing retreat in North Yorkshire. Like some of our team, you may be wondering, What is a writing retreat? This was a chance for us to get away fro...

In The DAPPLE project, we work with a co-production group of people with a learning disability. The group works with us to understand what we are finding out from the research, and how to make it bett...

Irene says:This is a study I have wanted to do for a very long time. My previous studies have focused on the experiences of people with a learning disability at the end of life; their information and ...

The year was 2006. I was about to embark on what would turn out to be a research-career-defining study. I wanted to spend time with people with a learning disability who had cancer, to try and see the...

We are delighted to share that the protocol for The DAPPLE Study has just been published in BMJ Open. You can read the protocol here.So, what does this mean? Essentially, the protocol is the blueprin...

On May 6th, I had the privilege of attending the Sawubona National Forum, a powerful gathering dedicated to transforming palliative and end-of-life care through the lens of equity, compassion, and inc...

Hello everyone!  My name is Mo.  I am a Research Assistant in the Learning Disability Research Team at Kingston University.  I don’t work on The DAPPLE Project. I work on another project called The RE...

When we first started setting up the biggest part of the DAPPLE study (listening to people’s stories) we knew there would be hurdles. After all, we’re trying to do something sensitive and important: l...

I am really into how we communicate with each other. So much that I have specialised in analysing communication. My background is in Linguistics (a fancy word for language science), and on my course I...

Freya Tyrer is leading on the “big numbers” part of the DAPPLE project. In this blog post, she tells us what the numbers are saying about how people with learning disabilities experience end-of-life c...

Are you a DAPPLE stakeholder? You are reading this blog, so the answer is YES! But what is a stakeholder? And why do we want to know more about them – about you, and all our other stakeholders? We ha...

From 29-31 May, the European Association for Palliative Care (EAPC) held their 19th World Congress in Helsinki in Finland with the theme “Ready for the future”. I was lucky enough to go, so let me tel...

Richard and the podcast team – Irene, Jonny, Anastasia and Jo - won an award at Kingston University. The award was for being ‘innovative’. We were given some money (£500) to celebrate. We had to spend...

I am used to interviewing people for my Podcast 'Cuppa Tea with Richard'. Recently, it was my turn to be in the hot seat, when I appeared as a guest on MacIntyre's The Sui-Ling Show!Sui-Ling is a mem...

New Episode Drop! Richard sits down with the brilliant and hilarious Mel Giedroyc for a heartwarming and witty conversation that covers everything from the glitz of the Eurovision Song Contest to the

My name is Richard Keagan-Bull. I am a research assistant with a learning disability, and I work at Kingston University. I host a podcast where I chat to guests over a cuppa tea.  I’m writing this blo...

What leads to real improvement in how people with learning disabilities are supported by health and care services? And how do we know that things are getting better, rather than staying the same (or g...

Last month, the DAPPLE team held three creative workshops in Yorkshire as part of our Co-production ‘Roadshows’ (so-named by my colleague Richard as an homage to the Radio 1 summer events). A wide ran...

I’ve become aware that our team has become known for our hat game. I know… we post a lot of pictures with people in funny hats, so it’s not surprising. But it’s begun to worry me. You see, we are so m...

People with a learning disability need to be involved in research.  Especially when the topic is so important – The DAPPLE Project is about life and death!  I became a researcher because I want people...

Back in December 2024, members of the DAPPLE team went to the Seattle Club Conference. The conference was held in London (not Seattle!) on 12-13 December by King’s College London. The Seattle Club Con...

Hello, I’m Amanda Cresswell. I have a learning disability and I’ve also had cancer. I’ve been a researcher at the university for 15 years. I’ve worked with Irene on lots of studies, like the Breaking ...

A few years ago, my partner and I had to sit our (then 6 and 8 year old) kids down to tell them that Col, my partner, their dad, had throat cancer. We didn’t know if he would live or die but the odds ...

Hello, I’m Sunny Sokhal. I have started my new job as a Research Assistant on the DAPPLE project. I want to share my rap with you. I wrote it about having a learning disability.Sunny Sokhal - Judgemen...

The other week we gathered around the talented researchers to do some training. We focused on those researchers who will be going out and learning about people’s lives and how they are supported by di...

Have you ever had a conversation that echoes?  Several years ago, before working at Kingston University, a chance encounter at a bus stop was to have a marked effect on me.  Moaning about the long wai...

YouTube video by Prof Irene Tuffrey-Wijne

One of the reasons we are doing the DAPPLE project is because it helps us answer questions about how to improve palliative and end of life care research. The James Lind Alliance, along with various pa...

Could you be a champion, working hard to make sure someone with a learning disability gets good care and support at the end of their life? You can make a difference.That’s the conclusion I came to sev...

YouTube video by Prof Irene Tuffrey-Wijne