We recruit people to take part in interviews through a number of different routes including GPs and hospital consultants, support groups and newsletters, advertising in the press, on websites, in social media and by word of mouth. Doctors and nurses hand out recruitment packs (which include a ‘study information sheet’, an introductory letter, a reply slip and stamped addressed envelope) to potential participants, who can get in touch with us if they are interested in hearing more.

Sometimes people hear about the study and contact us directly, in which case we send them a pack to help them decide if they want to take part. To make sure that a wide range of experiences and views are included we use a method called purposive (or maximum variation) sampling (Coyne, 1997). We carry on collecting interviews until we are convinced that we have represented the main experiences and views of people within the UK. Often this requires between 40 and 50 interviews.