Duo honoured at research awards

Two Cork women were honoured at the annual Irish Cancer Society Research Awards.

Sonya Lynch used her experience of metastatic breast cancer to help others while a team member of a novel Cork University Hospital clinic, Dr Laia Raigal, also featured.

Sonya Lynch has been an integral partner to the Linking You to Support & Advice (LYSA) study since its inception, offering her own insights and experiences since first being diagnosed with breast cancer in 2014 to help inform how women are supported at the CUH clinic to deal with difficult side effects that can arise from cancer treatment.

The LYSA study under the direction of Prof. Roisin Connolly, a CUH-based medical oncologist and Chair of Cancer Research at UCC, is part of the Irish Cancer Society’s Women’s Health Initiative which is researching how women can be best supported. Sonya was named as the Society’s first ever Public & Patient Involvement Champion of the Year, an award that acknowledges the contribution of the public and patients who are at the heart of its research projects, helping to ensure that they are meaningful and of benefit to those affected by cancer.

Sonya said: “Working as a patient advocate has given me a voice; and not that I speak for every person, but I know what it is like to go through treatment with young children, to lose your hair and go through these experiences that other people go through, and I have brought all those experiences to the team.” She added: “It has empowered me to address issues that I might not otherwise have been able to address in public. As a cancer patient I’m really grateful for all the work that is going on with the study. It’s gratifying for me to see that structures are coming into place as a result of the work that we have been involved in that will benefit patients into the future, including elements that I feel would have helped me along the way.”

Also honoured on the night for her important contribution to the innovative clinic – which offers help and advice to a selected group of participants recruited through the research study – was team member Dr Laia Raigal.

Dr Raigal was awarded Research Support Staff of the Year for her role in pushing the study forward even as Covid-19 squeezed hospital teams, helping to recruit patients into the study and to capture reliable data so that the effectiveness of the novel model can be rigorously monitored.