Greetings from the UK!
This week I had the absolute privilege of representing the Ovarian Cancer Research Foundation (OCRF) whilst attending the Helene Harris Memorial Trust International Forum on Ovarian Cancer (HHMT), hosted by the incredible Ovarian Cancer Action team.
Every four years, many of the world’s best and brightest minds in ovarian cancer research gather at HHMT, to share findings and discuss the latest insights and discoveries in the field.
For the first time ever, the CEOs of all four global charities – Ovarian Cancer Action (UK), Ovarian Cancer Research Alliance (USA), Ovarian Cancer Canada (CAN) and Ovarian Cancer Research Foundation (OCRF) (AUS) – co-sponsored the forum and held our own leadership meeting, to develop a shared understanding about potential priorities for future funding and collaborative impact.
As a group, we are impatient and ambitious for progress against this insidious disease, and we want the global research community to keep asking the bold questions on behalf of our community of patients, survivors and supporters.
It was a true honour for the CEOs to sit down over a private lunch with esteemed immunologist Leszek Borysiewicz as well. Sir Borys is the most recent chair of Cancer Research UK (CRUK) and former chief executive of the Medical Research Council/ UK Research and Innovation. Sir Borys' work included Europe's first trial of a vaccine for HPV to treat cervical cancer, and he shared his galvanising insights with great energy. It was fantastic! Thank you for your verve and wisdom, Leszek Borysiewicz! Sir Borys put a ‘grand challenge’ to the research community at our dinner, and the animated discussion afterward demonstrated his provocation made a mark.
As a partner, the OCRF provided development support and sponsored two respected Australian scientists to attend the forum (three, when we include Amy Wilson PhD :).
Sincere thanks to the CEOs group - Cary Wakefield, Tania Vrionis, Audra Moran – for your spirit of collaboration and trust over the time we spent together. It was a gift to learn from one another and envision a brighter future – and our #Frocktober pic (below) is simply the best!
To the research teams - Marie-Claire Platt, Alicia Tone, PhD, Faye Boswell, Amy Wilson – you were brilliant thinkers all week long, documenting the meeting, reflecting on each talk, coordinating and connecting the dots from a mountain of insights each day. Thank you for everything!
And last but by no means least, thank you to the medical research community for your commitment to excellence, dogged persistence, clinical care, robust dialogue, collegiality and innovation, all in aid of better detection, treatment and prevention of this complex disease.
It was inspiring to meet you and be part of it!
We can't wait to see what you do next.
David Bowtell Fran Balkwill Stephanie Lheureux Brad Nelson Iain McNeish Ronny Drapkin Sophia George Jason Lee Nikki Burdett
#HHMT #ovariancancerresearch #ovariancancer
