BRC Public Partnership Advisory Group Member
Irene is a cancer survivor who believes “I’m here because of research. Someone, or lots of someones have taken part in research in the past for me to be here.” Irene has been participating as a Healthy Volunteer for projects for many years now – trying to give back and help others.
To find out more about Irene and her thoughts about the involvement and engagement of patients and the public in research, we asked her some questions:
What areas of research are you interested in?
I’m especially interested in healthy ageing. Healthy body, healthy mind. We can try to do our best but sometimes our bodies may have other ideas!
Does being involved in research take up a lot of your time? How do you balance it with your other commitments?
I have always felt very supported in anything that I take part in. I am very committed to projects and I have found that if I have any unexpected commitments, it has been possible to work around these. Taking part doesn’t necessarily mean involving a lot of time and I’ve always found it to be very rewarding.
How do you think research benefits from involving and engaging with patients and the public?
We ask a lot of questions about everything! I like the way that it’s been said that “There’s no such thing as a daft question, it might be something that we (research team) haven’t thought of”. We bring lived experience to projects.