After three years of raising awareness of the dangers of antibiotic resistance in Leeds, the Seriously campaign has now launched in the North East. Our Experience Manager Eleanor shares what we’ve been up to this summer.
We launched the Seriously campaign with the NHS in Leeds in 2016, co-created with the audience at the time to appeal to students and ensure they took antibiotics properly: only when needed, and exactly as prescribed. Over the past three years, the campaign has evolved, communicating the growing issue of antibiotic misuse, spreading city-wide and engaging with the public in key communities across Leeds.
After hearing about the success of the campaign in Leeds, Sunderland and South Tyneside CCGs wanted to run Seriously in the North East this summer. To get people talking about the growing threat of the superbugs that are becoming resistance to antibiotics, the campaign team invited the public to fight a giant superbug as part of a launch event in Sunderland city centre.
Fight the superbug was an immediate hit with families. To spread the campaign further we’ve been working closely with Active Sunderland, offering children the chance to ‘beat the bug’ at their summer festivals held in parks across the city.
The Seriously campaign continues in Leeds, also with a focus on engaging families during the summer holidays. Our team have been visiting Breeze events to involve families with the campaign, using a giant game of Superbugs and Ladders to communicate important messages – including the importance of completing the course.
These activities have successfully engaged families with the campaign, with 7,000 pledges collected from Sunderland and South Tyneside this Summer, and 3,000 from families attending the Breeze events in Leeds.
To find out more about the campaign and pledge to help keep antibiotics working, click here.
