In this article, we examine the challenges of informal carers supporting someone with dementia and cancer within the United Kingdom. Interviews were conducted with seven informal carers using a narrative approach to examine the construction of their experiences. Our findings demonstrate how informal carers navigate a path through complex cancer treatments and support their relative. A cancer diagnosis often requires multiple treatment visits to an oncology center, and this can be challenging for carers. They find that they need to coordinate and manage both health professionals and their relative in terms of getting access to appropriate services and support. This process can be particularly challenging in the presence of a cognitive impairment that often demands effective communication with different agencies. Carers frequently experienced multiple challenges including dealing with the stigma that is characteristic of the dementia experience and the added complexity of negotiating this within a cancer care context.

This paper seeks to highlight the challenges facing researchers when recruiting vulnerable patients to a research study. We explore the difficulties experienced in gatekeeping for a project involving people with dementia, intellectual disabilities and mental health problems who are also having treatment for cancer. It is argued that the challenges in identifying and recruiting vulnerable participants extend beyond ethics committees and governance to the perceptions and judgements of health care professionals in 'allowing' access to particular patient groups. These positions and judgements appear to be embedded in certain construction(s) of cancer and discourses surrounding dementia, intellectual disabilities and mental health.

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