Dear Mr *Harlequin*,


We are writing to ask for your help in studying the prevention of cancer, heart attacks, strokes, diabetes and many other serious diseases. This medical research project - called "UK Biobank" - will involve 500,000 people aged 40-69 from all around the UK. Taking part may not help you directly - but, it should give future generations a much better chance of living their lives free of diseases that disable and kill.

UK Biobank has been set up by the government through the Department of Health, Medical Research Council and Scottish Executive, and by the Welcome Trust medical Charity. It is also supported by other charities, such as the British Heart Foundation and Cancer Research UK, as well as by the National Health Service.
People to invite are being identified from NHS records which have been processed, in confidence. on behalf of the NHS. We do not have access to your medical records. Our invitation letters are going to some millions of people in the UK and sometimes, unfortunately, may arrive at difficult times in peoples lives. I f this is the case with you, please accept our apologies for troubling you.

What taking part involves: All we are asking is that you give just over i hour of your time once at a study assessment centre. First, you will be told more about the study, and have any questions answered. Then, you will be asked about your health and lifestyle, have some standard medical test, and provide blood and urine samples. Subsequently. with your permission (and in complete confidence), we would follow your health through medical and other relevant records. The enclosed leaflet tells you more, and further details can be obtained by calling 0800-0-276-276 or looking at our website www.ukbiobank.ac.uk

but i am a lowly women what do i know

I would say that this worth doing.

A healthy degree of distrust is always a good thing, but in this case, what would the fear of being included on a giant database actually entail? It would entail multiple agencies (Bbiobank and the appropriate Home Office Big Brother Agency) talking to one another and passing on information. What do the Ian Huntly and Victoria Climbie cases have in common with the latest fiasco surrounding people released without being considered for deportation? A catastrophic failure of bureaucracies to exchange and pass on information within the same department, let alone cross departments.

If there are any grounds to your fears, it'll be worth betting that it'll scuttled by an innate incompetence on 'their' behalf