10 Years of Sling The Mesh – a decade of grassroots power, perseverance and progress (1 June 2025)

Summary

In 2015, few people had even heard of pelvic mesh implants, let alone the devastating complications they could cause. Women were told their pain was “normal,” their concerns dismissed, their injuries hidden behind a wall of medical gaslighting. But what began as a small group of women raising their voices against an invisible epidemic turned into one of the UK’s most powerful grassroots campaigns for patient safety and medical justice.

As Sling The Mesh marks its 10th anniversary, it celebrates a decade of courage, compassion, and relentless campaigning that has changed lives – and policy – forever.

Content

Over the next decade, Sling The Mesh will:

• Demand proper aftercare and support for all mesh-injured patients.
• Push for accountability from manufacturers and regulators.
• Campaign for awareness around hernia and other less-recognised mesh complications.
• Advocate for safer alternatives and patient-centred decision-making.
• Empower the next generation of campaigners to keep raising their voices.
• Push for tougher regulations and oversight of medical devices.
• Lobby for Sunshine legislation for transparency around funding from industry to the healthcare sector which can bias prescribing and affect research integrity.