Conversation 2: How can industry work with others to support patients with rare and less common cancers?
Conversation 2 Panel Chair: Rebecca Porta
CEO, The Urology Foundation and Interim Chair, Cancer52
Rebecca’s career in the voluntary sector spans over 30 years and she has held senior roles within some of the UK’s leading health and medical research charities including The Multiple Sclerosis Society, The Migraine Trust, CancerBACUP (now Macmillan Cancer Support), the British Lung Foundation and the male cancer charity, Orchid Cancer Appeal. She is Acting Chair of Cancer52, a member of ACEVO (Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations), the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR), PRCA (The Public Relations and Communications Association) and Women in PR.
Stefano Podesta
Oncology Lead, Pfizer UK
Stefano has more than 10 years’ experience in Oncology, across multiple tumour areas and countries. Before joining the Pfizer UK team, Stefano led Pfizer’s Oncology operations in Denmark, Norway and Iceland. Stefano’s main focus has been to develop the Pfizer Oncology portfolio through the introduction of new cancer medicines and the development of innovative solutions, aimed at supporting patients and healthcare systems. Stefano and his team are working closely with NHS, UK patient organisations and people impacted by cancer to optimise cancer services, empower patients and tackle health inequalities.
Dr Ravindhi Murphy
Medical Adviser, DETERMINE trial and Oncology Consultant, Chelsea and Westminster Hospital
Dr Ravindhi Murphy is a medical advisor at the Centre for Drug Development (CDD), Cancer Research UK. She works on a number of early phase trials within the CDD portfolio including the DETERMINE trial. The DETERMINE trial is a platform trial evaluating multiple genotype-matched targeted agents outside of their licensed indications in rare adult and paediatric cancers with actionable genomic alterations. She is a consultant medical oncologist based at Chelsea and Westminster NHS Foundation Trust, specialising in colorectal cancers. She completed her clinical training at Imperial College, London and her PhD at the Institute of Cancer Research, London, funded by a Wellcome Trust Drug Discovery fellowship.
Victoria Clare
CEO, Ovacome
Ovacome is the UK’s national ovarian cancer support charity. Victoria has been CEO of Ovacome since 2017 and has worked for charities and NGOs for 23 years. She has previously held CEO roles in INGOs in East Africa, The Head and Neck Cancer Foundation (UK), and is a trustee and Chair of trustees for several charities. Victoria has an MSc (with distinction) in NGO management, charity governance and management from Bayes, City, University of London. She has a special interest in addressing health inequalities and involving service users in planning and service delivery within charities.
