Professor William Gallagher:

Patients are critically important in terms of the research process, and not even the research process alone. If you look at the development of cancer strategy in Northern Ireland, the different work groups within that were co-chaired by someone with lived experience of cancer. That is a different model. There were some aspects of that in terms of the generation of the national cancer control programme, but it was not as pervasive. As I mentioned, one in two people will get cancer during their lifetime. There are going to be people out there who can bring their professional experience. Ivan McMinn, who chaired the overall cancer strategy for Northern Ireland, comes from a hardcore business background. He can bring that acumen into it in terms of how to organise it, but obviously he comes with the lived experience of cancer as well. We need to use the different skills we have out there, but we need a mechanism for doing that. Different groups are doing it, including Cancer Trials Ireland, different clinical research groups, and Patient Voice in Cancer Research. There is probably insufficient funding for that, and it needs to be mainstreamed, organised and facilitated. What I might do is get Professor Lawler to remind members of the political context, and I will come in on what we are trying to do now.