Black Health Research Fair: Connecting Communities and Researchers

On Thursday 16 April 2026 we held a Black Health Research Fair in Haringey, as part of our North Central London (NCL) Research Engagement Network (REN) project. This network aims to increase diversity in research participation in Haringey’s and Enfield’s communities.

This was a wonderful and vibrant community event that brought together Haringey residents, local community organisations, larger national charities such as Prostate Cancer UK, and research institutions, including the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) and Black Health Legacy.

Alongside stalls, Whittington Health, Embrace UK, and the Multi-Agency Care and Coordination Team (MACCT) delivered health checks to residents, Annetta, Sewn Together's Health Champion, spoke with residents about heart health and Amy from the North Central Lung Cancer Screening Team delivered a session about the importance of attending your screening.

The audience heard from Dr Veline L'Esperance, an academic GP based in South London and Co-Lead Researcher of Black Health Legacy, a research study which aims to understand health conditions that affect Black African and Black Caribbean communities, such as diabetes, chronic kidney disease, and high blood pressure, and improve the medications, treatments, and health outcomes for Black populations.

In her presentation, Dr L'Esperance shared how Black populations are significantly underrepresented in health research, how this affects identifying and treating health conditions which disproportionately affect Black people, and the structural, systemic, and cultural barriers that exist to research participation.

The Black Health Legacy team, along with the NIHR and Noclor teams, were also on hand to answer questions and support residents in taking part in Black Health Legacy's study on the day.

“We want to be more than just a research study. We want to change the narrative when it comes to Black African and Black Caribbean people’s health. We want to combine what we know about genes and what we know about health in order to create change. But we can’t do that as a research team on our own. We really need to be guided and helped by the communities that we are trying to serve.”

Dr Veline L’Esperance

The day ended with an impactful panel discussion, followed by a Q&A, facilitated by one of our Community Research Champions, Sonja Scantlebury from Sewn Together. Panellists discussed how health research impacts our everyday lives, the effects of underrepresentation in health research on Black communities’ health and what’s being done to address this, and how we can build strong relationships between communities and research institutions.

"To quote Zora Neale Hurston, research is formalised curiosity. Health research is just finding the answers to particular questions that we want."

Lynis Lewis

Thank you to our panellists:

Lynis Lewis, Director of Research, Noclor and North London Foundation Trust
Sittana Abdelmagid, Dementia Lead Research Nurse at National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, UCLH
Dr Veline L’Esperance, Co-Lead Researcher, Black Health Legacy
Geoffrey Ocen, Chief Executive, Bridge Renewal Trust

" By participating in research, you are feeding into how national guidance and policy is changed."

Dr Veline L'Esperance

Event feedback shows that people are very interested in hearing about current health research and locally available health services and support, highlighting the important role our project plays in developing vital connections between communities and researchers.

Our Black Health Research Fair builds on three years of work with the North Central London Integrated Care Board, the Edmonton Community Partnership, and our grassroots Community Research Champions to foster meaningful partnerships between communities and research partners. It has created space for people to ask questions, share their needs, and get involved in research that improves health outcomes for future generations.

Find out more about the North Central London Research Engagement Network