A sharp rise in bowel cancer-related mortality and growing incidences in younger population is a major global challenge, which requires a combined effort between researchers, health care professionals and patient/public. To address this, our research group has organised a an open day focussing on PPI involvement in bowel cancer in 2024. To expand this initiative further at an all-Ireland level, through this grant for the first time we will bring together researchers, PPI groups, charities as well as health care professionals from the north and republic of Ireland to enhance and advance bowel cancer research across the island of Ireland. Specifically, the funding obtained through this KTA award will be used to carry out activities guided by our PPI advisory panel, which was established through funding from our existing grant, namely (1) to organise a PPI-focussed all-Ireland event focussed on bowel cancer in 2025 and (2) the creation of an educational selection of videos for a public audience that can effectively communicate complex science topics such as epigenetics, which is a core focus of our research group as well as several other cancer researchers across Ireland and globally.
Our PPI advisory panel will be integral to the design and delivery of the 2-day bowel cancer PPI event showcasing research patient stories/experiences as well as interactive sessions with patients, health care professionals and researchers across the island of Ireland. Our series of videos will be accessible through platforms such as YouTube as well as being displayed in presentations at open days and future awareness campaigns. They will become a critical resource, breaking down science topics into ‘bite-size’ learning, enabling us to make research outputs/concepts more accessible to the public. Ultimately, we aim to strengthen the patient-focussed research in bowel cancer across Ireland, and develop new PPI-collaborations to facilitate this.