Women's Health Concern

The following is an interim description which may change when detailed cataloguing takes place in future:

Please note that this archive is largely made up of patient data that is highly sensitive in nature. When the archive is catalogued, the patient data will require closure for the lifetime of the data subjects in accordance with the 1998 Data Protection Act. We anticipate that it will not be possible to make patient records from the archive available for research before 2055 at the earliest. For fuller information on how the library handles sensitive archival data, see our policy on Access to personal data within our research collections.

The collection consists mainly of letters from women with enquiries about their health issues, plus WHC publications.

c.1970s-1990s

Uncatalogued: 43 transfer boxes

Received from Joan Jenkins, the founder, in March 2000

Women's Health Concern was founded in 1972 by Joan Jenkins, who was extremely passionate about helping women with their healthcare needs, at a time when limited information was available to women. Initially it aimed to provide women with information on hormone replacement therapy (at that time hard to obtain in the UK), but soon moved into providing information on a range of gynaecological conditions. It started as an open-access clinic in London but has expanded its services so that it now provides women with counselling and advice through its telephone advice line and email services. These can be accessed through their website

Archived website

This organisation's website has been archived as part of the work of the UK Web Archiving Consortium (UKWAC) and can be consulted here: http://www.webarchive.org.uk/ukwa/target/28737556.

This collection is currently uncatalogued and cannot be ordered online. Requests to view uncatalogued material are considered on a case by case basis. Please contact collections@wellcomecollection.org for more details.