2026 BONUS Essay Winners announced!

Thank you to everyone who submitted an entry to this year's BONUS national essay competition on the theme, 'Bridging the gap: Why do promising discoveries fail to reach the patient?'.

We are happy to announce the winner of the contest, Huda Ali - 3rd year graduate-entry medical student at the University of Nottingham!

There is no doubt that healthcare has advanced significantly, with headlines frequently proclaiming the discovery of a “cure for cancer.” Yet the question remains: what happens after the discovery, and why do so many promising breakthroughs fail to reach patients in practice? Translating scientific discovery into meaningful patient outcomes remains one of oncology’s greatest challenges, despite rapid advances in molecular biology, immunotherapy, and precision medicine (1). The journey from bench to bedside is not linear, but a fragile and complex process, disrupted by biological unpredictability, research limitations, and systemic inequities in healthcare (2). To understand why innovation stalls, it is necessary to view this process as an interconnected system rather than a series of isolated failures.

Read Huda's full essay here:

A big congratulations also to our runner up, Dr Alisha Shania Mohammed - FY1 doctor at Cambridge University Hospitals Trust.

Read Dr Mohammed's essay here: