BRAVE in Practice

Building BRAVE through multiple layers of evidence

BRAVE in Practice brings together the projects, partnerships, research and learning that continue to shape the development of BRAVE.

At TONIBOBANDLOU CIC, we believe meaningful innovation is built through lived experience, research, evaluation, collaboration and continuous learning. Each project contributes a different perspective, helping us better understand what women need when facing breast reconstruction and mastectomy decisions and how BRAVE can continue to evolve.

BRAVE in Practice – A Collaboration with WatchMeThink


What can we learn by observing how women, clinicians and carers engage with BRAVE in real time?

Through a collaboration with WatchMeThink, and with support from a Macmillan Cancer Support Grant, we explored how behavioural insight could complement an already established evidence base.

Watch the video reel and read the accompanying case study below to discover how this collaboration helped us generate new evidence, deepen our understanding and inform the future development of BRAVE.


Featured Collaboration: WatchMeThink


Our first featured collaboration explores how video ethnography and behavioural insight added a new layer of evidence to the BRAVE programme.

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CASE STUDY: WATCH ME THINk


TONIBOBANDLOU CIC is a social enterprise dedicated to improving informed decision-making for women facing breast reconstruction and mastectomy surgery. By 2026, our flagship project, BRAVE, a magazine-style visual decision aid designed to help women make informed breast reconstruction and mastectomy decisions through representative imagery, lived experience and clinical information, already had a strong and growing evidence base. A combination of Research, lived experience insight and independent evaluation had all contributed to the development of BRAVE 1.1, helping us better understand what information women need when facing breast reconstruction and mastectomy decisions. The question facing us next was not whether BRAVE worked as we already had evidence to support that. Instead, we wanted to understand whether behavioural insight could add another layer of evidence. Could we learn something different by observing how women, clinicians and carers engaged with BRAVE 1.1 in real time? Would video ethnography help us identify what captured attention, prompted reflection, built confidence or created uncertainty? Could behavioural insight generate evidence that would contribute to the future development of BRAVE 2.0? 

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Why Watch me Think? 


To answer those questions, we knew we needed specialist support and we were looking for a partner with expertise in behavioural insight, observation and video ethnography. What attracted us to WatchMeThink was their ability to capture what people do, not simply what they say. Their methodology created an opportunity to observe participants engaging with BRAVE in a natural, authentic and unscripted way. 



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A Collaboration built on SHARED PURPOSE


Through the support of a Macmillan Cancer Support Grant, TONIBOBANDLOU CIC was able to commission and deliver the BRAVE in Practice project. The grant funded participant involvement and supported the delivery of the project, whilst WatchMeThink made a significant in-kind contribution through the provision of their expertise, platform, infrastructure and time. From the outset, there was a shared commitment to understanding how women, clinicians and carers engage with BRAVE and to generating meaningful insight that could support future innovation and improvement. The result was a collaboration built on trust, curiosity and a shared belief that women deserve better information when making life-changing surgical decisions. 

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The Importance of a strong brief


One of the most valuable lessons from this project was the importance of investing time upfront in developing a clear and evidence-led project brief. The brief was not created in isolation. It drew upon years of accumulated learning from the BRAVE programme, including lived experience research, earlier evaluations and interviews with 21 women that generated more than 900 individual comments, observations and insights. As a result, the questions we explored through WatchMeThink were deliberately designed to build upon existing evidence rather than repeat it. This meant we were able to move beyond asking whether BRAVE worked and instead explore how women, clinicians and carers experienced and interacted with the resource in practice. The brief provided a shared framework for the collaboration, clearly defining:  

• The purpose of the project

• The participant groups

• The safeguarding approach

• The methodology

• The deliverables

• How the findings would be used

This created clarity from the outset and enabled both organisations to contribute their expertise effectively. 

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Bringing multiple Perspectives together


The project brought together four important perspectives:

• Women with lived experience of breast cancer

• A breast care nurse

• A consultant breast surgeon

• A caregiver supporting a loved one through treatment


Each participant engaged with BRAVE from a different standpoint and collectively, they helped us better understand how BRAVE sits within a wider support system involving patients, families, carers and healthcare professionals. For us, this reinforced the value of resources that help patients prepare for, understand and engage more confidently in conversations about treatment options. This multi-perspective approach reflects how TONIBOBANDLOU CIC develops all its work. 

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What we learned


The project reinforced many of the themes that had emerged through our earlier research and evaluation. Participants consistently highlighted the importance of realistic and representative imagery. Many reflected on the value of seeing real women, real bodies and real surgical outcomes presented honestly and respectfully. They valued honesty. They valued diversity. Above all, they valued information that felt human, relatable and accessible. What WatchMeThink added was the opportunity to see those reactions unfold in real time. By observing how participants interacted with BRAVE, we captured moments of reflection, recognition and understanding that complemented our existing evidence base and provided a different perspective on how the resource is experienced in practice. One of the most powerful reflections came from the breast care nurse who was introduced to BRAVE through the project. Reflecting on its practical value, she commented: “I could use this every day, all day, every day, to be honest, for the people that I have conversations with.” For us, this demonstrated not only the value of BRAVE to patients, but also its potential to support healthcare professionals who guide women through complex decisions. The project did not replace previous research or evaluation. Instead, it added another layer of learning to a growing evidence base built through lived experience, research, evaluation and implementation. 

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Impact beyond the project


One of the most positive outcomes has been the continued use of the project outputs beyond their original purpose. The completed video reel has become an educational and engagement resource, helping audiences understand the value of representative information when women are making breast reconstruction and mastectomy decisions. Selected clips from the project have already been incorporated into presentations delivered to healthcare professionals and stakeholders, helping bring patient, clinician and caregiver perspectives to life. The reel has also created opportunities for broader education and engagement by allowing people to see and hear real reflections rather than simply reading about them. Perhaps most importantly, the project has demonstrated how behavioural insight can help support patient-centred innovation. 

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Looking ahead


At TONIBOBANDLOU CIC, we do not look for a single source of truth. We build confidence through multiple layers of evidence. Research, lived experience, evaluation, behavioural insight, clinical expertise and implementation experience each tell a different part of the story. Together, they help us understand not just whether something works, but why it works, for whom, and how it can be improved. The BRAVE in Practice project sits within that broader journey, the project helped us explore a new way of generating evidence. Watchmethink’s contribution has become an important part of the growing body of evidence and insight that continues to shape the future of BRAVE and support better informed decision-making for women facing breast cancer surgery. 

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