Biobank

Some 18 months ago I went to Newcastle for a series of scans as part of the UK Biobank research project. Some 10-12 years previously I’d signed up to be part of this programme which tracks people over the years.

The hope is that having more detailed evidence from when you were young might enable researches to see if there were early signs of illnesses which emerged later in life. I believe there are some half a million involved in periodically recording health and lifestyle issues. Some 50,000 of us have undergone the scanning process. We don’t get the routine results but the data feeds into the research.

I’d agreed to be part of their current coronavirus antibody test and the kit arrived today. All very clearly explained and easy to do and submit the results.

I had in any event planned to make this my blip but the added incentive was the item on the BBC news at ten reporting on how the scans taken in the past were being used to compare more recent scans of those who had suffered from Covid-19. Fortunately I do not fall into that category but interesting to see the work being used to better understand the impact of the virus.