Congratulations to our scholarship winners for 2020

Friends of the Cancer Centre is delighted to announce the winners of the charity’s scholarships for 2020. For the past 12 years, the charity’s scholarships have been providing opportunity for staff within cancer services to receive funding of up to £2000 to support a training or educational course. The scholarships are named after and awarded in memory of former colleagues, Dr Gary McGowan, Pamela Lutton, and Pearl Ewing. They were all passionate advocates of professional excellence, and committed to providing enhanced care and support for local people affected by cancer.

In the most challenging of years, the charity was delighted to see the commitment that cancer services staff have to furthering their career and education, with a significant number of fantastic applications submitted.

The Dr Gary McGowan scholarship, open to oncology trainees, has been awarded for 2020 to Dr Kyle Crawford, in order to allow him to complete his Masters degree in Clinical Education. Kyle’s dissertation project will look at integrating inter-disciplinary education between student radiographers and medical students, in order to attract the best young talent as future oncologists for local cancer patients.

Open to therapeutic radiographers, the Pamela Lutton scholarship is jointly awarded this year to Gail Gilchrist and Laura Okell. Gail, a clinical research radiographer at the NI Cancer Trials Network, aims to use her scholarship to complete a Masters degree in Radiographer Led Review for prostate cancer patients. Laura, practice educator for radiotherapy at the North West Cancer Centre, intends to use her portion of the scholarship to complete a Postgraduate Diploma in Education for Health Care Professionals.

The final scholarship, named in memory of Pearl Ewing, a former trustee of the charity, has this year been awarded to Rachael Quinn, clinical educator for oncology at the NI Cancer Centre. The scholarship will enable Rachael to complete her Masters degree in Advanced Practice in Oncology, where she will identify areas needing improvement and in turn, educate the nurses she comes into contact with in her role about how best to meet the education needs of patients.

In order to be awarded a scholarship, staff must clearly demonstrate how furthering their education in their area of choice will make a difference to local people affected by cancer. We look forward to seeing how Kyle, Gail, Laura & Rachael’s scholarships help to shape patient care for local people affected by cancer in the coming years.