Pippa O’Connor and Brian Ormond presented a cheque for over €200k to Professor Kevin Conlon at St Vincent’s Hospital today – to fund the establishment of the Jenny McGovern Pancreatic Cancer Clinical Database.
Jenny McGovern, née Taaffe, suffered a devasting Pancreatic Cancer diagnosis in August 2018. After the most courageous, graceful, and inspirational battle – she passed away in August 2019.
One of Jenny’s final wishes was to help others, and she wanted her death to be used as a catalyst to raise the profile of this awful disease.
So in February of this year, Jenny’s friends and family, including Pippa and Brian, hosted the third annual Blossom Tree Ball to raise funds for the new charity – and they managed to raise a whopping €202,638.
Pippa and Brian were joined by Jenny’s beloved husband Alan McGovern, and their two sons James and Rory today, as they presented the cheque to St. Vincent’s Hospital.
Currently in Ireland, we have an administrative database which provides certain key performance indicators of the National Cancer Control Programme – but it does not allow us to collect or interrogate clinical details.
This is a major deficit, as a robust and accessible database is considered a basic requirement for any national centre.
St Vincent’s University Hospital will now begin to recruit clinical pancreatic nurse specialists to administer the new Pancreatic Cancer Clinical Database, under the guidance of Professor Kevin Conlon and Mr. Justin Geoghegan.
After much research and discussion with the teams in St Vincent’s, it was universally agreed that the most beneficial legacy would be to start this much needed database.
The collation of this data is the cornerstone required for the advancement of pancreatic cancer primary care, research initiatives and genetic advancements in the fight against this awful cancer.
All proceeds from the charity fundraising efforts will be used to establish The Pancreatic Cancer Clinical Database in association with St Vincent’s University Hospital, and all funds will be ringfenced and managed through the St. Vincent’s Foundation.
