My experience as a student presenting at the Ca-PRI conference, by Sassy Drake

Posted by ma403

20 May 2025

I was fortunate enough to attend the recent Ca-PRI 2025 Conference in Manchester. As a placement student this was something I never thought I’d be able to experience. What made it even more special was that I was able to present an online poster I prepared for the event. For this I cannot thank the APEx group enough.

The two-day event was a whirlwind, with so many interesting talks and presentations including: inequality & innovation in early detection and diagnosis of cancer, cancer treatment and survivorship, and healthcare systems, pathways and policy to name but a few. I felt very honoured to be part of the event and really enjoyed listening to the keynote speakers who started each day and left me with lots of food for thought, and inspiration to pursue a career in research.

Thank you to my incredible colleagues who presented their poster and talks at the conference, and to everyone else who afforded me their time to talk to me. The conference gave me an invaluable opportunity to meet people from all over the world. I spoke to so many people from so many different backgrounds in research and primary care. Most memorably I spoke to the incredible cancer survivors, who are crucial to our understanding of what we need to do to improve our collaboration to make healthcare, treatment and research more cohesive.

The conference was also a great opportunity to catch up with my colleagues outside of the office – the night before Ca-PRI we had a delicious dinner and some drinks.

I hope to have the opportunity to attend many more Ca-PRI Conferences and appreciate all the support I have received, making this trip and my placement year so enjoyable.

Sassy