Lisa said of her work, “About 70% of breast cancers are hormone driven. Most of these women will be treated with tamoxifen and about one third of them will relapse within 15 years. We’re looking for new ways to treat this type of patient, patients that either fail on tamoxifen treatment or don’t respond at all. “It’s very important for patients to know what we’re doing even though a lot of our research is at the early stages and it may take a few years for something to come from it. There are currently therapies coming out at the moment that people have been researching for a long time; this is what we’re doing now and hopefully in a few years down the line we may have new drugs for patients.”
Proud mum Marion said, “I’m so proud of her. Cancer research is so important. I’m living proof of this.” Lisa narrowly beat Alexandra Tuzova from Castleknock to the prize.
At the ceremony the Irish Cancer Society also announced that, thanks to the public’s generosity, it is on track to invest €30 million in cancer research in the decade up to 2020. Averil Power, Chief Executive of the Irish Cancer Society, said: “This decade has broken all records for cancer research in Ireland. Thanks to the generosity of the public, the Irish Cancer Society has invested more money in life-saving research than ever before, finding better ways to prevent, detect and treat cancer. “In 2019 we intend to invest €2.3 million in cancer research, supporting the work of over 100 researchers around the country. This makes us the largest voluntary funder of cancer research in Ireland, but we can still do even more. “Every year we have to turn away researchers who come to us with potentially life-saving projects, simply because we don’t have enough funds to support them. Unfortunately, this means we may have had to turn down a potential breakthrough or cure. If we’re going to stop cancer this has to change. That’s why Daffodil Day 2019 needs to be the biggest one yet.”
Daffodil Day supported by Boots Ireland, will take place on Friday 22nd March. Members of the public are urged to get involved by volunteering as fundraisers and donating what they can on the day. For more see cancer.ie/daffodilday.
