Patient Partners are supported by our Patient Partnership Lead Caitriona Higgins and each partner is paired with a staff member.

As a Patient Partner you can choose how involved you would like to be. You may wish to be part of the Working Group and attend meetings regularly or you may wish to participate in smaller short term projects such as:

• reviewing patient information and education materials
• taking part in a project to improve services for cancer patinets
• giving your opinion on proposed developments and plans

The CPPWG meet six times a year, meetings take place in Beaumont Hospital with the option to join in person or online via MS Teams. There is regular correspondence between meetings about various projects and updates.

Patient Partners are contacted via email and phone as required and we will always take your preferences into account. Your personal data will not be shared or used for purposes other than communication related to the CPPWG.

New Patient Partners are always welcome, if you like to join the Cancer Patient Partnership Working Group or you would like to find out more about the role of Patient Partners you can contact our Patient Partnership Lead

Caitriona Higgins Patient Partnership Lead

Tel: (01) 8528883

Email: caitrionahiggins@beaumont.ie

My name is Nicola Caul-Brennan. I’m a mammy, wife, daughter, sister, auntie, niece and a friend. I work as a Special Needs Assistant in a secondary school since 2007. I was diagnosed with Stage 2 ER+ and Her2+ breast cancer in 2019 and thank God I’ve come out the other side. I joined the group when it was set up first in January 2023. My reason for joining is to spread awareness about cancer, the supports and resources that are available before, in treatment and most importantly I think after treatment.

The group is amazing. It helps you connect with other patients and hospital staff in a way that we are working together side by side to make cancer care more nurturing, Each patient partner is given a mentor who works beside you on different projects. checks in with you and can explain or answer questions about any of the medical terminology or practices that we don’t fully understand. In turn we give our own personal feedback to the group. Examples of the projects I have been involved in to date are the Skin Cancer Education programme, the development of patient experience surveys and patient information leaflets.

I am delighted to be a patient partner representing others on the Cancer Patient Partnership Working Group. My hopes and dreams for this group is to help where I can to make the Cancer Services in Beaumont Hospital  from a patient perspective Exceptional!

June 2026: Patient Partners and our Cancer Conference

Every year our cancer centre has a Cancer Conference. This year patient partners joined panel discussions with our clinical staff and took part in a lunch and learn session where patient partners met with researchers who were presenting posters. For our patient partners it was an opportunity to learn about how research works. For researchers it was an opportunity to learn how to deliver informati to patients and public about their research in a way that is meaningful. We also got to see the launch of a wellness booklet by the psycho oncology department that our group has contributed to the development of.

Meeting before the conference to plan lunch and learn with the researchers. Amand Gilooley Patient Partner (PP), Mary Hopkins (PP) Caitriona Higgins Nurse and patient parntership lead, Ann Mynes (PP) and Co-Chair Rachel Harrington (PP), Petra Jagust RCSI Researcher	Roberta Horgan from Lynch Syndrome Ireland meeting researchers at lunchtime
Professor Hill Breast and General Surgeon and Martin Sweeney patient advocate in a panel discussion	Fiona Colhoun, Pscyho Oncology Nurse launches a wellness booklet for patients.

April 2026: Postgraduate Nursing Education about Patient Involvement

An education session was provided to the post graduate oncology nurses about patient and public partnership. This session was designed and delivered by the Cancer Patient partnership group chair Caitriona Higgins and the co-chair of the group Anne Mynes who is also a patient partner.

January 2026 World Cafe for INTERACT 100

Interact-100 is an Inter-European project developing a training programme, where different disciplines of staff learn about each other’s roles in cancer care. By getting staff to understand each other’s roles better and improve how they work together to improve cancer care for patients. Participants from across Europe visited the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland for a 2 day training event in January.

As part of this they were invited to participate in a world café event which was co-designed and led by our patient partners.  It was very successful with great interaction between event participants and interdisciplinary healthcare staff that attended from across Europe. Patient partners from our group, the hospital patient forum and from Trinity St James Cancer Institute took part.

2025: Updating the Medical Oncology Consent Form

The medical oncology consent form was updated by the Oncology team. Patient partners reviewed it and gave their feedback on the wording and layout for it. Changes were made to it based on this feedback which has made it a much more patient friendly document.

2024: Soul Snacks  – an initiative by members of the CPPWG

Soul Snacks is an innovative collaboration between patients and healthcare professionals.  The “Snacks” are bite-sized pieces of information for patients undergoing treatment for cancer, those supporting them, or anyone interested in well-being. Soul Snacks emerged from a Psycho-Oncology intervention where a psychologist and a former patient recognised the lack of practical, visually exciting, and evidence-based information for patients.  The information provided in Soul Snacks is based on current research and evidence, as well as patient experience…and a little bit of fun! Read more about Soul Snacks

2023 CPPWG features in the Irish Times:

In May 2023 Beaumont RCSI Cancer Centre celebrated 1 year since accreditation by the Organisation of European Cancer Institutes. As part of the celebration the Cancer Centre was featured in the Irish Times Supplement. The important role of the CPPWG and the experience of some of our members featured in the supplement which you can read here

2023 Members of the CPPWG visit research labs

Cancer Research covers a broad spectrum from prevention to treatment and beyond. Making sure patient perspectives and experience guide the research agenda means that it has more value and relevance for patients as well as making it more meaningful for researchers. Members of The Cancer Patient Partnership Working Group (CPPWG) joined researchers in the RCSI lab in St Stephens Green who are looking into treatments for metastatic breast cancer. Read more here