A new creative health campaign, led by Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM), in partnership with Writing on the Wall, Sahir House, Liverpool City Council Public Health, is harnessing the power of community storytelling to raise awareness, combat stigma, and support public health action around Mpox. Funded by The Pandemic Institute, Mpox: What’s Your Story places lived experience at the heart of outbreak preparedness.

Mpox, formerly known as monkeypox, is a viral disease that can be passed from person to person by close physical contact, and causes a range of symptoms including fever, headache and skin lesions. Discovered in humans in the 1970’s, it has been causing large outbreaks since 2017. In August 2024, The World Health Organisation announced the highest level of alert for Mpox following an upsurge of the Clade 1 variant in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and a growing number of countries in Africa.

Putting lived experience at the centre of public health

Since the 2022 global outbreak, more than 4,000 cases of Mpox have been confirmed in the UK, and while the current public risk remains low, new strains could cause future outbreaks. The disease has been shown to disproportionately affect marginalised communities, yet public understanding remains uneven. Preventative vaccination is available but relies on education and reducing the stigma around the disease. Standard public health campaigns can struggle to connect with the communities most at risk. This project brings the real stories of those affected into public conversations, using poetry, animation, and community voice to build understanding and trust.

“During the 2022 outbreak local sexual health services, third sector organisations and queer community champions played a crucial role in controlling the spread,” explains Dr Charlotte Hemingway, Principal Investigator and Post-Doctoral Research Associate at LSTM. “By listening to and amplifying the voices of these communities, we created health messaging that resonates, by centring people and not the disease.”

Storytelling as a tool for outbreak preparedness

The project was conceived in response to gaps identified during the 2022–2023 Mpox outbreak. While community organisations played a critical role in disseminating trusted information, national communications often failed to meaningfully incorporate lived experience. Mpox: What’s Your Story addresses this by using participatory design methods to co-create assets that are both scientifically accurate and emotionally resonant.

Over six weeks of workshops at Toxteth Library in Liverpool, community participants worked with poet Louise Fazackerley and animator Daniel Turner to turn personal experiences into public health messages. Through free-writing, spoken word, collaborative poem-making and visual storytelling exercises, they explored themes of stigma, resilience, and community care.

The creative outputs include two call-to-action poems and an animation that will be shared widely through social and traditional media.  The resulting visual and audio assets will be made freely available for adaptation across the UK, supporting national preparedness efforts and strengthening collaboration between communities and public health authorities.

A model for future pandemic preparedness

This project aligns directly with The Pandemic Institute’s mission to predict, prepare for, and respond to future infectious threats. By integrating creative arts with public health science, Mpox: What’s Your Story offers a model for community-driven communication in outbreaks.

It also complements the ongoing Arts and Humanities Research Council-funded ReCITE programme, which explores how storytelling can build trust and shape effective health interventions. Together, these initiatives underscore the value of community partnerships in pandemic resilience.

For further information, and to download the assets, visit the Writing on the Wall website.

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