• 10:30am – 10:50am - Arrival, registration and refreshments

• 10:50am – 11:10am - Welcome, housekeeping and About Ovacome

• 11:10am – 11:40am – Dr Fiona Furlong and Clare Murray, Student Pharmacists on the front line: Learning to recognise the signs of Ovarian Cancer 

• 11:40am - 11:55am – Short break 

• 11:55am -12:55pm – Dr Niamh Buckley and Prof Paul Mullan, Updates in ovarian cancer research 

• 12:55pm– 1:55pm – Lunch

• 2:00pm – 3:00pm – Dr James Beirne, Updates in Ovarian Cancer

• 3:00pm-3:30pm 
  • Breakout Room 1: Linda Warwick, Macmillan lived experience team
  • Breakout Room 2: Dr Sarah Nally, My Ovarian Cancer Toolkit: What helped me navigate diagnosis, treatment and survivorship

• 3:30-4:00pm 
  • Breakout Room 1: Dr Sarah Nally, My Ovarian Cancer Toolkit: What helped me navigate diagnosis, treatment and survivorship
  • Breakout Room 2: Linda Warwick, Macmillan lived experience team

• 4:00pm - Goodbyes

• Dr James Beirne is a Consultant Gynaecological Oncologist and Gynaecological Surgeon. He has dedicated his career to specialising in the care of women with new and recurrent gynaecological cancer. Dr Beirne is also a Clinical Senior Lectuer at Trinity College Dublin.  

• Dr Fiona Furlong is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Pharmacy at Queen’s University Belfast and a cancer biologist with research expertise in ovarian cancer. Her academic work sits at the interface of cancer biology, treatment response, and professional education. She leads teaching and research supervision on the MPharm programme, with a particular focus on how scientific evidence underpins diagnosis, treatment decisions, and patient care.

• Dr Sarah Nally is a women’s health advocate and researcher who was diagnosed with low-grade serous ovarian cancer at the age of 26. She combines her personal experience with academic research to raise awareness and improve understanding of ovarian cancer, menopause, and broader public health issues.

• Professor Mullan has been a group leader at Queen’s University Belfast since 2004, firstly in the Department of Oncology, then the CCRCB, and now in the Johnston Cancer Research Centre (JCRC). His group has a long-standing record of working on treatment and diagnoses of Breast and Ovarian Cancers, and have published consistently in high impact scientific journals.

Since 2013 Professor Mullan has had an increased interest in cancer diagnosis and in particular, the areas of liquid biopsies and DNA methylation (DNAme). He has identified numerous DNAme markers elevated in Ovarian Cancers (including in Ovarian Cancer in its earliest stages), providing the basis for developing more accurate Ovarian Cancer blood tests. In addition, his team are developing tests capable of detecting other ‘difficult to diagnose’ cancers (triple-negative breast, lung, pancreatic). In 2021 he co-founded a spin-out company, GenoME Diagnostics, who have initiated a clinical trial of a novel blood test to more accurately monitor Ovarian Cancers in patients during treatment and follow up.

• Dr Niamh Buckley carried out her Ph.D. training in the Department of Oncology at Queen’s University Belfast and then worked as a post-doctoral researcher with Professor Paul Mullan in the Centre for Cancer Research and Cell Biology (Queen’s University Belfast).  During this time, she investigated the role of the breast and ovarian tumour suppressor gene, BRCA1, in stem cell regulation and mammary gland differentiation. In 2022 Niamh was promoted to Reader in the School of Pharmacy at Queen’s University Belfast. She is an active member of the Nanomedicine and Biotherapeutics Cluster and is also an associate member of the Johnson Centre Cancer Research Centre (JCRC) at QUB. Her research focuses on the integration of in vitro, in vivo, bioinformatics and pathology approaches to identify key pathways underpinning poor outcome cancers and uses detailed knowledge of this biology to identify appropriate targeted treatment options, personalising therapy in an area of unmet clinical need.

• Clare Murray is a Lecturer (Education) in the School of Pharmacy at Queen’s University Belfast. She has extensive practice experience across community pharmacy and general practice, including leadership roles, which informs her teaching and educational work.

   A qualified Independent Prescriber, she teaches across undergraduate and postgraduate programmes with a focus on clinical therapeutics, prescribing, and patient-centred care. Her work centres on advancing pharmacy education and supporting students to develop the knowledge and clinical reasoning skills needed to improve patient outcomes.

We are really looking forward to welcoming you. Please register using the button at the top of this page and you will receive further information by email closer to the date. 

Once you have registered, if you can no longer attend this event please do let us know so we can offer your space to others who would like to attend.

If you have any questions about the event, please contact events@ovacome.org.uk or call 020 7299 6654. 

The venue is Europa Hotel, Great Victoria Street, Belfast, BT2 7AP

If you require support to attend one of our in-person events, please let us know when you sign up. We always ensure the venues we use are accessible for anyone with disabilities.

Some examples of support we can give include:

• Translators including BSL. We usually require around three weeks advanced notice to allow for booking.
• Receiving slides or information ahead of the session
• Reserve a seat close to the speakers
• Travel assistance - we can help you with planning your travel to our event, and where possible arrange for a member of the team to accompany you on your journey to the event if you need assistance.
• Financial assistance – we want to ensure that Ovacome members can access the events they want to without worrying about the associated costs. For example, we can help cover the price of transport to attend an in-person event and contribute to accommodation expenses if staying away from home to join an Ovacome event. You may feel tired after attending an event.  we can arrange accommodation in advance for you so that you can rest before travelling home. Friends and family are included if they are accompanying a person with an ovarian diagnosis to our events, or if they have access needs themselves.

Join Ovacome's community in Belfast city centre on Saturday 20 June, the day after our Health and Wellbeing day, for a sponsored walk to explore the city's rich history and support Ovacome's vital work.

Find out more and register here