PRESIDENT’S REMARKS AT THE LAUNCH OF THE PROSTATE CANCER INSTITUTE NUI GALWAY FRIDAY, 1 APRIL 2011
PRESIDENT’S REMARKS AT THE LAUNCH OF THE PROSTATE CANCER INSTITUTE NUI GALWAY FRIDAY, 1 APRIL 2011
Dia dhíbh go léir a chairde. Is mór an onóir agus pléisúir dom bheith anseo inniu.
Ladies and Gentlemen
Thank you for that warm welcome. I am delighted to be back in NUI Galway for yet another of this university’s remarkable canon of innovations - the launch of the new Prostate Cancer Institute. I am very grateful to James Browne for the invitation to be here to mark this important occasion.
It was Samuel Johnson who once said that ‘Hope is necessary in every condition’. Despite the huge advances that have been made in our understanding of cancer and its effective treatment, it is still a diagnosis that none of us wants to hear. It is bad news and it opens up to us a world that none of us wants to enter, whether as a patient or as a worried family member. Yet for the person who today or tomorrow receives that bad news, hope and reassurance are of paramount importance and both of those things are directly related to the availability of treatment and the outcomes of treatment. The good news for many of them is that, thanks to the relentless search for ways of both avoiding and overcoming cancer, many more cancer patients than ever before can look forward to a good life as survivors of cancer. Today the world of medical and pharmaceutical research has managed to crack the code of a significant number of cancers and they have devised successful treatments or disease management plans which open life up to fresh possibilities and to hope. We all owe a huge debt of gratitude to the men and women who have made this work their life’s vocation. It is their persistent intellectual curiosity, their intellectual and scholarly rigour and their care for the wellbeing of others that allows us to hear the word “cancer” and still hope that this will be a temporary and superable interruption in our lives.
One of the areas where considerable success and progress have been made is in the field of prostate cancer which is today, in our country, the most commonly diagnosed cancer in men. On average nearly two thousand six hundred men are diagnosed each year but thankfully the survival rates are now estimated to be over 87%. That is a lot of real hope generated by hard work and determination, a very bright light at the end of this particular tunnel. But there are major gaps still to be closed to get that number closer to 100 percent, to reduce the incidence of the disease which is still growing, to prevent the scourge of late diagnosis and importantly to reduce the relapse rates which still remain stubbornly quite significant. The successes already achieved in primary management of prostate cancer give us reassurance that this Institute’s prioritising of finding treatments for relapsed prostate cancer will bear fruit, will produce answers and renewed hope to many individuals and their families. Here, under the leadership of Professor Frank Sullivan, an expert, dedicated team of clinicians and academic researchers will focus on finding those answers that will restore the joy in life that comes from being given the gift of life.
This is a major undertaking involving a huge financial investment by the University Foundation and Cancer Care West, a considerable commitment by the University and University Hospital Galway, the personal commitment of the Institute’s staff and the goodwill of all those whose help they will be relying on, including prostate cancer patients. The very existence of the Institute is a statement of intent - that the best of our medical problem-solvers in the field of prostate cancer are going to do their best to beat prostate cancer relapse. I wish them all well and thank all those who have brought together this partnership of endeavour for this crucial investment in the health and hopes of our people.
Not so long ago I was here for the opening of the wonderful new cancer support services offered by Cancer Care West. The people of Galway can feel very proud of the first-class reputation this region has as a leader in cancer services and today, with the opening of this Institute, it adds a new string to its bow with a team of internationally recognised cancer researchers and clinicians. But the people who will feel the import of this day most keenly are Ireland’s prostate cancer patients who rely on your skill and expertise to change the odds and to change their lives for the better. I wish all who will contribute to the work of the Institute success and fulfilment of the founding ambition which gave rise to the Institute - to pursue the questions until the answers are revealed.
Go raibh míle maith agaibh go léir.