Professor William Gallagher:

On the point about empowerment of patients, I asked Ms Gaynor here because that is a great example of patient-led research. However, what is the next stage? How do we ensure that if we carry out a body of research it is actually implemented? Often the challenge is in the implementation phase. There needs to be more focus on facilitating those studies that are patient-led or geared at addressing issues, and then focusing on the implementation. That is where we can really benefit from an all-island approach to collaborate on this. One area we are very keen on in AICRI is to have an all-island survivorship cancer centre and to really focus on that. There are some historical reasons that has not been put into practice but there is a big opportunity because, as I mentioned, we have over 300,000 people on the island who have gone through a cancer experience. Some are still living with it. There are huge opportunities to learn from the two systems, harness the information that is there and convert it into practice.