Clonakilty pharmacist wins prize for her cancer research work

A WEST Cork pharmacist has been named as the winner of the Irish Cancer Society’s Support Staff of the Year gold medal at the Irish Cancer Society Research Awards.

Dr Erin Crowley is a pharmacist in Clonakilty but also works as academic study co-ordinator at the UCC Cancer Trials Group and said, following the recent event at Trinity College in Dublin, that she “really relished the experience to delve into the cancer research space”.

“My position is shared across the UCC Cancer Trials Group and the HRB Clinical Research Facility-UCC, which are both HRB funded,” said Dr Crowley. “This has really allowed me to strengthen collaboration between the two infrastructures. Seeing the impact this has had in the last two years has been incredibly rewarding, and makes me so optimistic in our ability to give our patients opportunities to participate in academic clinical research in the future.”

Alongside her award, Dr Luke Jones was named Senior Researcher of the Year, while Chowdhury Arif Jahangir won the title of Phd Researcher of the Year.

On the night, the Irish Cancer Society also announced the creation of the Sonya Lynch PPI Award 2024. This award will provide funding to drive forward PPI activities, specifically in metastatic breast cancer research.

The award was created in honour of Sonya Lynch, who used her experience with cancer to help others and was a founding team member of the LYSA study in Cork as part of the Irish Cancer Society Women’s Health Initiative.

The head of research at the Irish Cancer Society, Dr Claire Kilty, said cancer research in Ireland had a huge impact on the lives of people affected by cancer.