In this interview, we meet Rebecca van Kalsbeek & Selina van den Oever from the Princess Maximá Center in the Netherlands. Rebecca and Selina support the Coordinator Prof. Leontien Kremer in management of the project.
Please introduce yourself and share with us why you joined PanCareFollowUp.
Selina: My name is Selina van den Oever and I am a PhD student at the Princess Máxima Center in Utrecht. I joined this project because I hope to make a contribution to better survivorship care, thereby improving the quality of life of survivors. Also, being part of this project allows me to work with both professionals and survivors. This is a great learning experience for me.
Rebecca: My name is Rebecca van Kalsbeek. I am a medical doctor and PhD student in high-quality childhood cancer care and survivorship care at the Princess Máxima Center in Utrecht, the Netherlands. I am happy to be involved in PanCareFollowUp, because the project aims to make change in the daily lives of survivors. This is a very rewarding goal.
Explain your work in PanCareFollowUp shortly.
The project is divided into work packages (WP) and we are involved in WP7, which provides overall leadership. This includes coordination of the PanCareFollowUp project and monitoring of the progress made by the WPs. We assist Prof Leontien Kremer in her task as coordinator to ensure that the project meets its deadlines and delivers the anticipated results.
Why do you think PanCareFollowUp is an important project?
Selina: Due to cancer treatment, survivors of childhood and adolescent cancer have an increased risk of health and psychosocial problems later in life. Yet, appropriate survivorship care is not always available. That is why this project is so important; PanCareFollowUp aims to ensure good quality survivorship care for all survivors across Europe.
Rebecca: I agree. Survivors can be challenged by late effects. Fortunately, there is still much that survivors can do themselves, for example by changing their lifestyle or reporting relevant symptoms in time. What makes PanCareFollowUp unique is that it does not only impact the survivors participating in the study. The lessons we learn and the materials we develop will be distributed freely so each clinic can use them, and each European survivor may benefit from person-centered survivorship care.
What makes this project unique for you?
Selina: Working with so many professionals, all with their own area of expertise.
Rebecca: For me, the highlight is to work together with survivors. Their input has helped shape the PanCareFollowUp Care and Lifestyle Interventions to meet the needs of survivors.
What do you hope this project will achieve?
Selina: I hope that this project gives us more insight about how survivorship care can be improved, at a European level and globally.
Rebecca: That would be a great result, indeed. I would like to add that I look forward to seeing the impact of survivorship care on the health and wellbeing of survivors, and its feasibility in different care systems. Hopefully, this can be an inspiration for other centers that are starting to establish long-term follow-up services.
What’s the biggest challenge of your WP?
Selina: My biggest challenge is to – at all times – keep an overview of the different tasks. The project moves very fast!
Rebecca: Coordination involves being up to date about a lot of topics relevant to the project – legal and ethical considerations, project organisation, applying for licenses, et cetera. I have learned that it is important to involve the right people in an early stage, so they can help by sharing their expertise and advice.
What’s the most fun thing in your WP?
Selina: The most fun thing about being a WP7 team member is that you collaborate closely with all members of the project.
Rebecca: This is my first time being involved in a project from start to end. I am proud to see that we are almost ready to start including participants, and look forward to seeing the study evolve over the years.
What’s the most important benefit of your WP for survivors?
The most important task of WP7 is to ensure that we meet our goals. And meeting our goals will make a great contribution to survivors’ quality of life.