Speaker Biographies - Day Two

Jim Laing runs Ridgeway Associates, which is a small development consultancy, focusing on management, leadership, coaching and learning. Jim went independent in 1999 after a career as a Teacher, Headteacher and Chief Education Adviser for a large Local Authority. The consultancy allows him to pursue his passion of exploring the links between leadership and success in a whole range of organisations.

As the 'Leadership Coach' for numerous senior academic and administrative staff at two large universities, Jim is also the education consultant for the expatriate division of a huge UK supermarket. His leadership, coaching and facilitation work take him all over the world.

Jim qualified as a professional mediator with the National Mediation Centre a few years ago. As well as mediating disputes, Jim delivers conflict resolution training programmes for a variety of educational and non-educational organisations.

He became connected with Prostate Cancer UK after being diagnosed in 2002 and has been pleased to support the Charity in whatever way he can. Having sampled radical prostatectomy (at Southmead Hospital, Bristol), and radio/hormone therapy (at Velindre Hospital, Cardiff), Jim is able to talk personally about some of the treatment options with other men diagnosed with prostate cancer. He is a currently an 'Awareness Volunteer' and a 'Media Talker'. In March 2011 he gave talks on behalf of Prostate Cancer UK at the M&S Gala Evening in London and also at the House of Commons reception for the 'Testing Choices' campaign.

Dr Parker qualified in Medicine from Oxford University in 1989. He trained in Oncology at the Royal Marsden Hospital, and in Molecular Pathology at the Institute of Cancer Research. After a research fellowship at Princess Margaret Hospital in Toronto, he was appointed to his current post in 2001. Dr Parker is Chief Investigator of two large prostate cancer trials; RADICALS and ALSYMPCA. He is a member of the Department of Health Prostate Cancer Advisory Group.

Professor Ken Muir is based at the University of Warwick where he is working on the pooling of gene-epi studies from around Europe to evaluate the interaction of risk factors for prostate and other cancers.

His main research interests are in the translational applications of the epidemiology of cancer and other chronic diseases and healthy ageing. His work in these areas has attracted substantial funding from the UK's leading funders into these conditions. In addition to charitable funders, significant funding has also been obtained from both governmental and EU sources.

Professor Muir's reputation within applied epidemiology centers around four areas for which his work is recognised internationally:

• Gene and gene-environment interactions in the aetiology of chronic degenerative conditions and the practical applications of such knowledge including risk stratification and targeted screening.
• The effects and action of dietary and other non-genotoxic agents on cancer and their likely role in public health based interventions in primary care.
• Lifestyle and other factors that influence healthy aging and maintenance of quality of life.
• The evaluation of interventions and strategies to reduce the burden of ill health and disease in the community.

Professor Maitland, graduated with First Class Honours in Biochemistry from the University of Glasgow, and holds a PhD in Cancer Studies from the University of Birmingham. Part of his Postgraduate research was carried out as a Robertson Research Fellow in Cold Spring Harbor laboratory (NY, USA) where he pioneered the introduction of DNA into mammalian cells to correct genetic defects.

After postdoctoral research at the University of Edinburgh, he was appointed as the first UK Lecturer in Molecular Pathology at the University of Bristol in 1983, to apply basic molecular biology in the diagnosis and treatment of clinical problems, including childhood, cervical and oral cancers. He remained in Bristol until 1991, when he was appointed to his current post. Professor Maitland is also Director of the YCR Cancer Research Unit and holds a Chair in the Hull-York Medical School.

John Anderson is a Consultant Urological Surgeon with a special interest in Oncology at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital in Sheffield, UK. He has a particular interest in the detection and treatment of early prostate cancer and the management of invasive bladder cancer. He was a founder member, Secretary and then Chairman, of the British Association of Urological Surgeons Section of Oncology. In 2010 he was elected by the full membership as Vice President with a view to taking up the presidency in 2012. He is a Trustee and medical advisor to Prostate Cancer UK.

John has written extensively on prostate and bladder cancer and lectures regularly at national and international meetings. He is a member of the Executive Committee of the British Journal of Urology International Editorial Board. He has also sat on a number of advisory boards including the National Cancer Research Institute Clinical Advisory Board for Prostate Cancer and is the Urology Advisor on the Department of Health Prostate Cancer Advisory Group.

Dr Alonzi is a Medical Research Council Clinician Scientist with appointments as a Consultant Clinical Oncologist at Mount Vernon Cancer Centre with a special interest in Urological Malignancy. He is also a Senior Lecturer at University College London. His research interests include the development of biologically targeted precision radiotherapy, tumour oxygenation, radiobiology and the use of radiosensitisers in prostate cancer. His research is currently funded by Prostate Cancer UK, the Medical Research Council and the Royal College of Radiologists. He is the chief investigator of Prostate Cancer UKy PROCON trial, which is currently evaluating the modulation of oxygen levels within prostate tumours during radiotherapy.

Dr de Bono MD FRCP MSc PhD was appointed in 2003 as Senior Lecturer and Honorary Consultant in Medical Oncology in the Section of Medicine at the Royal Marsden Hospital and Institute of Cancer Research, which form Europe's largest Comprehensive Cancer Centre. He plays a leading role in the clinical drug development Phase I trials program at the Royal Marsden Hospital. Johann is also a key translational clinician in the Centre for Cancer Therapeutics and plays a major role in the Academic Urology team treating patients with castration resistant prostate cancer. He has a particular interest in the rational design of molecular targeted therapies for prostate cancer.

Between 2000 and 2003 he researched and developed new anti-cancer drugs in the USA at the Institute for Drug Development and the University of Texas Health Science Centre in San Antonio. Dr de Bono has been involved in the development of over 50 novel agents over the last 5-years, several of which have now been approved. He is currently running over 30 early clinical trials.

Simon Denegri was appointed Chair of INVOLVE in May 2011 - a national advisory group which supports greater public involvement in NHS, public health and social care research. He is also Chief Executive of Ovarian Cancer Action, a post which he took up in June 2011 after spending five years as Chief Executive of the 126-strong Association of Medical Research Priorities (AMRC).

Prior to AMRC, Simon was Director of Corporate Communications at the Royal College of Physicians of London from 2003. He was Assistant Chief Executive at the Alzheimer's Society (UK) from 2002 to 2003 and Head of Public Affairs from 1992 until 1997. In the intervening period he was Corporate and Financial PR manager at Procter & Gamble in the United States and then Director of Communications at the Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health.

He is also a member of the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Advisory Board, the NIHR Strategy Board and the UK Clinical Research Collaboration (UKCRC) Board. He has been a member of the BBC's Appeals Advisory Committee since 2007.

Simon studied Politics and Legislative Studies at the University of Hull, is a member of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (MCIPR) and a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. He has written and spoken extensively on issues concerning medical and health research policy and practice and writes a popular blog on the world of medical research, charities, public engagement and involvement: http://simondenegri.com/

Matthew Sydes works as Senior Medical Statistician for the UK Medical Research Council. He is based at the MRC Clinical Trials Unit in London. He is an experienced statistician and trialist having been involved in public sector medical research for the past 14 years, primarily on randomised controlled trials (RCTs) in oncology. His current role involves leading multi-disciplinary teams designing, coordinating, analysing and reporting large, usually international, RCTs for men with prostate cancer and young adults and children with osteosarcoma.

For the past 5 years, Matt has also been a member of an Ethics Committee in the UK, reviewing a large number of medical research projects, including randomized controlled trials. He also peer reviews for a number of medical journals.

Areas of particular interest to Matt are novel methods for clinical trials; Data Monitoring Committees for RCTs (Matt was much involved in the DAMOCLES project); registration of clinical trials; fair and consistent reporting of trial results; and public awareness and understanding of clinical trials. The open trials Matt works on each bring interesting challenges: STAMPEDE uses novel multi-arm multi-stage (MAMS) methods to concurrently asses 5 research arms against a common control regiment for prostate cancer; RADICALS assesses the two most important post-operative questions in partially overlapping groups men who have had surgery; EURAMOS-1, the largest trial ever in osteosarcoma, assesses riskstratified treatment in this orphan disease, possible only through a large international collaboration.

Dr Adam Glaser is a Consultant Paediatric and Adolescent Oncologist based in Leeds, where he is the clinical lead for the Yorkshire Cancer Network's late effects programme. He is currently the Clinical Director for the National Cancer Survivor Initiative at the Department of Health.

Dr Glaser has been involved in the care of survivors of cancer since the mid 1990s. He completed his doctoral thesis in Nottingham on "Health Status Following Therapeutic Interventions in Young People". Since then, he has remained active both academically and clinically in the care of cancer survivors. He has been involved in the production of national best practice guidelines for the care of cancer patients. He has published widely in this area.

Dr Clare Stevinson is a Lecturer in Behavioural Aspects of Physical Activity and Health at Loughborough University. Her PhD (University of Bristol) explored the role of exercise in cancer rehabilitation, and was followed by research fellowships in physical activity and cancer (University of Alberta) and cancer supportive care (University of Manchester).

"Although we all know we are not immortal, you can never really prepare yourself for the day your doctor says 'this could be life-threatening'''. Ross Fenton, 54, was diagnosed with prostate cancer in December 2009. Now he volunteers with the Charity, spreading the word to other men, as well as helping the Charity understand the ongoing issues men face. Here he shares his personal experience.