Team

John is the Director of the Wales Cancer Research Centre and an academic clinician. His academic roles in the College of Biomedical and Life Sciences at Cardiff University include Professor of Oncology in the School of Medicine. His clinical work is as Honorary Consultant in Medical Oncology at the Velindre Cancer Centre in Cardiff.

John’s clinical practice has predominantly been in bladder cancer, germ cell tumours and head/neck cancers, and he has specialist clinical research interests in trials for bladder and head/neck cancers, and in stratified medicine. His laboratory research interests include virus-mediated gene therapy and molecular biomarkers of response to cancer therapy.

Amongst his various other roles are: Lead for the Cardiff Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre (ECMC); strategic lead for the Velindre Cancer Centre Phase I trials unit; and Deputy Director of the Wales Cancer Bank. He serves on Cancer Research UK’s New Agents Committee and their Clinical Careers Committee and Clinical Research Monitoring Panel.

Duncan Baird is professor of Cancer and Genetics at Cardiff University. He has a long-standing interest in telomere biology with a focus on the mechanistic basis of telomere erosion, instability and fusion, with the goal of understanding how this impacts the evolution of the cancer genome and tumour progression.  He developed single-molecule approaches to determine telomere length and characterise telomere fusion events, including Single Telomere Length Analysis (STELA) and its adaption for high-throughput (HT-STELA). The clinical application of these technologies has led to the development of high-resolution prognostic and predictive markers in several tumour types, including chronic lymphocytic leukaemia, multiple myeloma, myelodysplasia and breast cancer. The technologies also have applications for informing patient selection and product development of cellular therapeutics.

Professor John Staffurth is a Clinical Professor in Oncology in the Division of Cancer and Genetics, Cardiff University and a Consultant Clinical Oncologist specialising in bladder and prostate cancer based at Velindre Cancer Centre in Cardiff, Wales.

His main research interests are radiotherapy for bladder and prostate cancer and the management of castrate refractory prostate cancer. He is a member of both the WCRC’s Radiotherapy and Prostate Multi-Disciplinary Research Groups and has strong links with the Medical Engineering Research Group, School of Engineering, Cardiff University.

He is a member of the localised subgroup of the National Cancer Research Institute (NCRI) Prostate Clinical Studies Group, a member of the national radiotherapy research group CTRad and of the national Radiotherapy Trials Quality Assurance group. He is leading or is involved in the design and delivery of multiple trials in both prostate cancer and radiotherapy. He sits on research funding committees for Prostate Cancer UK and Cancer Research UK. He sits on the Trial Management Groups and Independent Data Monitoring Committees of several trials in the UK.

He is the lead local investigator for multiple trials in Velindre including trials of novel radiotherapy approaches and novel drugs.

Sunil Dolwani is a Gastroenterologist and Cancer theme lead for the Division of Population Medicine in Cardiff University. He leads inter-disciplinary research into screening, prevention and early diagnosis of colorectal cancer. His research is supported by Cancer Research UK, Tenovus and Health and Care Research Wales. He was CI of the CONCOP study and the group has a programme of research through clinical trials applying new technology to cancer screening and integrating healthcare datasets with longitudinal population cohorts.

Anthony leads the workstream on physiological assessment within the  Improved Patient Outcomes theme. A Palliative Medicine physician in Cardiff, Anthony is also the Clinical Director of the Marie Curie Palliative Care Research Centre at Cardiff University. His particular areas of research interest are  palliative rehabilitation, pragmatic study design and implementation, and patient experience methodologies. He is a member of the Palliative and Supportive Care subgroup of the NCRI Brain CSG and the End of Life Board for Wales. He is also research lead for Palliative Care at Cardiff and Vale University Health Board where his clinical practice is based.

Annmarie is the lead for our Personalised Patient Experience research and jointly initiated and developed the Centre’s Patient and Public Involvement model.

She is Marie Curie Professor of Supportive and Palliative Care and Scientific Director of the Marie Curie Palliative Care Research Centre. 

She is Chair of the NCRI Advanced Disease and End of Life work stream, and is joint lead for the Palliative and Supportive Care work package for the HCRW PRIME centre.

Annmarie is interested in complex interventions and the patient experience at all levels, including the real time assessment of the impact of trial processes and interventions for issues of equipoise and effectiveness. Her primary research area is difficult areas of treatment decision-making in advanced cancer where the decision to treat with chemotherapy or radiotherapy becomes uncertain due to side effects in advanced disease. In the Personalised Patient Experience workstream she is developing methods to integrate the patient's priorities and preferences in decisions about treatment so that treatment decisions are framed around subjective outcomes, to supplement objective clinical data.

She is also interested in the acute and late effects of cancer treatments, including past cure. She has developed a portfolio of qualitative studies embedded within oncology and supportive care clinical trials and national and international multicentre qualitative studies. She has a strong interest in PPI and is joint lead (with Pro Matthias Eberle) for Engagement and PPI for the School of Medicine at Cardiff University.

Jodie Bond is a communications professional with a background working in research, the arts, the third sector and education. She joined the Wales Cancer Research Centre in 2015 when the organisation was in its infancy and has developed the Centre’s engagement activity, brand and reputation from scratch.

Jodie believes that through tailoring communications and engagement activities, we can help the public develop a greater understanding and appreciation of research and its impact on society. She knows how to catch the public’s interest, promote sell-out events, and influence stakeholders — and it’s not just keeping up to date with the latest developments on social media. It’s how much you value, and how well you connect with, the individuals you’re reaching out to.

Jodie has managed a number of successful communications and marketing campaigns. She has promoted sell-out international tours for the UK’s leading contemporary circus, managed multi-regional PR campaigns for the UK’s second largest charity, and worked as part of a team who won gold at the CIPR Cyrmu awards. Outside of her work for the centre, Jodie is a writer and the author of the Vagabond King trilogy.

Kate develops processes to support the members of the public who contribute and form a key role in the Centre’s work.  She facilitates the governance the Centre and delivers the coordination of the WCRC including reporting on the Centre’s progress and organising conferences in collaboration with key stakeholders.