In this interview, we meet Kylie O’Brien from Pintail Limited in Ireland. Kylie supports the Coordinator Prof. Leontien Kremer in management of the project.
Please introduce yourself and share with us why you joined PanCareFollowUp.
My name is Kylie O‘Brien and I am the project administrator, working for Pintail Ltd. I joined PanCareFollowUp at the proposal writing phase thanks to my links with the PanCare network from managing a previous PanCare project funded by the EU called PanCareLIFE.
Explain your work in PanCareFollowUp shortly.
The project is divided into work packages (WP) and I am involved in WP6, which communicates and disseminates the project, and WP7, which provides overall leadership. My task within PanCareFollowUp is to support the administration of the project – basically to help keep things organised and running as smoothly as possible! I help the Coordinator to plan meetings, answer questions from partners on how EU funding works and help to prepare reporting documents for the EU. I also support the communication and dissemination of the project via the project website.
Why do you think PanCareFollowUp is an important project?
I think PanCareFollowUp is an important project because it brings together researchers, doctors and survivors from across Europe for a common goal. They are working to improve care for survivors in the real world, which is really needed. It‘s a really lovely example of how publicly-funded research can be used to improve health and well-being.
What makes this project unique for you?
Collaboration! It‘s amazing to see how people with really different experiences and backgrounds can create something really valuable together.
What do you hope this project will achieve?
I hope the project will achieve a long-lasting improvement in person-centred survivorship care, and that the interventions developed and tested by the team can be expanded across Europe in the future. With the committed stakeholders we have involved, I am sure it‘s possible!
What’s the biggest challenge of your WP?
The biggest challenge for me as an administrator is the large number of institutions – 13, each with many staff members involved! My job is made easier by the friendliness of the team and the fact that I have worked with many of the people involved for almost 9 years now.
What’s the most fun thing in your WP?
I love seeing things all come together! We started with an idea for a proposal that became a project, and now we have two interventions that will soon be delivered to survivors. It‘s really special to be involved in the journey from start to finish.
What’s the most important benefit of your WP for survivors?
I hope that I am able to help make sure survivors are really involved in all aspects of the project by including this in our planning. It‘s really important that survivors can contribute to what we are developing, so it meets their needs, and not just in communicating the findings to their peers at the end of the work (even though this is also very important!).
What else do we need to know about you or is there anything else you want to share?
I really hope to be involved in more PanCare collaborative projects in the future – I always learn something new and have a lot of fun along the way!