The artist who draws cancer patients

Chemotherapy treatment for cancer can be a lengthy process, and patients often say it can be a stressful, boring, anxious and challenging time.

At UCLH hospital in London, the artist Simon Tolhurst helps to change that, by offering patients the chance to sit for a pencil portrait – and a calming chat at the same time.

As Portrait Artist in Residence, Simon has drawn around 250 patients and their friends and relatives, and says it allows patients to reflect and talk – while requiring no exertion on their part.

Here he meets and draws Lucy Nicholls, who is receiving treatment for non-Hodgkin Lymphoma.