Advisory Board

The Advisory Board of the Wales Cancer Bank (WCB) superseded a Steering group which was originally convened to oversee the initial establishment of the project and this stakeholder group was instrumental in guiding the Cancer Bank through its initial year of existence. The Steering group consisted of representatives from the National Assembly for Wales, Office of Research and Development (WORD), consultant pathologists, professors of clinical and medical oncology, patient and community health council bodies, the commercially successful Wales Cancer Trials Network and members of the WCB executive group and sub-groups.

The Advisory Board is responsible for ensuring that the WCB complies with NHS governance on ethical and clinical issues and that all relevant legislation is recognised and adhered to, as well as considering the strategic operation of the bank. It receives reports from the sub-groups, it direct operations and reports to the Welsh Assembly Government.
It was recognised that a board made up of a wider spectrum of expertise, to include a majority of members external to Wales, would allow greater transparency and give a wider UK perspective. A number of stakeholder groups were identified and approached for representation, including the WCB funders, the NHS in Wales and the Cancer Services Co-ordinating group in Wales. The newly constituted group met for the first time in January 2008 in the Royal Society in London. Mr Nick Ross, lay representative, chairs the Board.

Full membership of the new Advisory Board and their affiliations are detailed below

  

WCB funders
Professor Keith Lloyd	Welsh Assembly Government	Head NISCHR
Dr Malcolm Adams	Cancer Research Wales	Chairman Scientific Committee
Mrs Andrea Hague	Velindre NHS Trust	Director of Cancer Services
Host University
Professor Steve Tomlinson	Cardiff University	Provost
Cancer Services in Wales
Dr Jane Hanson	Cancer Services Coordinating Group	Director of Cancer Services
IT specialist/Health informatics
Dr Dave Morrey	Velindre Hospital	CIU
Dr Stuart Bell	NCRI Informatics Unit	Interim Director
Nursing
Dr Tony Hazell	Nursing and Midwifery Council	Chair
Bioethicist
Professor Hazel Biggs	Southampton University	Professor of Law
Oncologist
Professor Robert Leonard	Imperial College	Lead cancer clinician
Pathologist
Professor Gordon Stamp	Imperial College
Surgeon
VACANT
Translational scientist
Professor Mitch Dowsett	The Institute of Cancer Research
Industry
Dr Rick Greville	ABPI Cymru	Director
Business
Professor Barry Furr	Llangarth Limited/AstraZeneca	Consultant
Lay member
Mr Nick Ross

Sub-groups

Lay Liaison and Ethics group
Chair – Mr Neil Formstone
Consists of representatives from patient groups across Wales and originally advised on patient information sheets and consent forms compilation. The group has since expanded to include representation from Community Health Council, PR and fund raising experts. It continues to monitor patient involvement and advises on recruitment procedures from the patient’s perspective and has also recently drafted a communication strategy.

Collection Management group  
Chair – Dr Alison Parry-Jones 
Consists of the IT Manager and the nurses and technicians employed in local hospitals. All aspects of the day to day collection are monitored and this group helps to foster team collaboration as the project is geographically spread across Wales.

IT re-write project board  
Chair – Mr Maynard Davies (NWIS)
Responsible for overviewing the central database system and forward planning of system updates in conjunction with the IT Manager and liaison with existing information services groups with the aim to fully integrate the Cancer Bank database on an all Wales basis.

Sampling group
Consists of pathologists and technical staff and was initially responsible for the collation of sample collection protocols and standard operating procedures. 

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