Storying Sheffield

Knowing as Healing: Living well with IBS

Knowing as Healing. Self-management & information literacy for people living with Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS)

The Storying Sheffield Knowing as Healing Project is a participatory action research project working with people living with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). The project is led by Vicky Grant. It is partnering undergraduate medical students with people living with IBS and the aim is to enhance health information literacy amongst participants and to synthesise biomedical knowledge with first-person illness narratives. This film about Vicky’s research has been made by Gemma Thorpe.

Service-user timeline

We are using creative pedagogical approaches in our study days and workshops including the use of oral narratives, journaling, sketching, embroidery and collage. This is an interdisciplinary project between the University Library, Storying Sheffield in the School of English, and the Molecular Gastroenterology Research Group in the Medical School, University of Sheffield. We are collaborating with the IBS Network, patient.co.uk, Sheffield Hallam University Library and Kelham Island Arts Cooperative.

Medical student timeline

If you are interested in participating in the project please email Vicky Grant (hil@sheffield.ac.uk) or telephone: 07546635874, or post: Storying Sheffield Knowing as Healing Project, School of English, University of Sheffield. Jessop West. 1 Upper Hanover Street. Sheffield. S3 7RA


Interview from a Knowing as Healing Workshop


This is a film made by Vicky about her own experiences of living with IBS.

Knowing as Healing has received Arts Enterprise funding.