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The Public Interest Group on Cancer invites interested folks to their study!
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Category: Public Interest Group on Cancer Research
Community report for 2025 by the Public Interest Group on Cancer
Happy 2026 everyone!
Here is a little summary of our accomplishments for the past year – hope you will enjoy this video clip.
We wish you a wonderful 2026!
Sevtap
We have a logo!
Dear folks,
We are pleased to share our group’s logo with you!
We loved how it shows togetherness and feeling of community that we have been experiencing and seeing around us.
Happy New Year!
©Public Interest Group on Cancer.
Exceptional Leadership in Patient Involvement in Cancer Research Award
I am excited to note that I will be receiving the Exceptional Leadership in Patient Involvement in Cancer Research Award by the Canadian Cancer Research Alliance (CCRA) in Nov 2025.
Congratulations to all awardees – what a great cohort of folks who are dedicated to make a difference at the cancer front!
I am so happy to bring this Award to Newfoundland and Labrador, and Atlantic Canada.
This prestigious and national award goes to you folks: Community in #NewfoundlandAndLabrador and in #AtlanticCanada, my collaborator colleagues and assistants, and our funders who transformed me into a public communicator and engager.
Over the last 6 years, together we have been working very hard to make a difference in the lives of people, families, and communities affected by cancer.
The Public Interest Group on Cancer Research has been particularly strong voice in Newfoundland and Labrador. It was formed and sustained by funding provided by the Office of Public Engagement in St. John’s, Memorial University of Newfoundland. Sadly, this wonderful unit, its excellent staff, and its funding do not exist anymore. This is just one example of how the budget cuts impact the community in NL – no one wins here.
The Atlantic Cancer Consortium Patient Advisory Committee is another successful partnership albeit being a young one (formed less than 2 years ago). I thank our funders/MOHCCN for making our work and committee a possibility.
NLSUPPORT has always been there to give us a hand – I cannot thank its wonderful staff.
Among all the units I am associated with at Memorial University, it has been my clinical colleagues at the Discipline of Oncology, who have fully supported and understood what I have been trying to do in my engagement work. Special thanks go to them.
I thank Quality of Care NL for nominating me for this award, and public partners, leaders, and colleagues supporting my nomination.
I always question where my heart and mind are. Nowadays they are with my family. My mom, Nimet Altunbas, died of cancer four years ago. My sister, Mehtap Savas, is a long term survivor of cancer. I would die for them.
I work very hard to make a difference in the lives of people affected (or will be affected) by cancer – I have no regret for working hard, failing, getting up, getting burnt out, and succeeding along the way. My only regret is that my family has not benefited and will not benefit from my hard work. From my young age on, they supported my ideals and not even once complained about me being away from them (since age 11). I proudly note that my sister Mehtap is my biggest supporter, as she understands the gap we have been addressing together with public partners in the lives of people affected by cancer.
Last, I am Turkish and I am an immigrant to Canada. This award is a testament to immigrants’ abilities and contributions to the society and academia in Canada. If there are other immigrant folks out there who would like to start public and patient engagement, please just go ahead – future is brighter.
My commitment to make things better for the next person and family affected by cancer is continuous. Please join me in supporting them in any way you can.
With gratitude
Sevtap Savas, PhD. Oct 21, 2025 St. John’s
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In case you are wondering what we have been doing with public partners, here is a short summary
- We have been spending a lot of time creating ideas, figuring out, conversing, and overcoming hurdles to do so
- We have been reaching out to the public, engage with them, and share knowledge with them
- We have been designing studies and public engagement activities to benefit the public
- We have been advising researchers and other stakeholders
- We have been organizing public events and conferences
- We have been publishing all learnings at both the academic and public levels, so that anybody could benefit from our experiences
- We have been learning how to best work together
- We continuously progressed and evolved – we even started a public podcast on cancer with currently 28 episodes!
You can read my full award interview here: https://www.ccra-acrc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/2025_Interview_SSavas_EN.pdf and listen to a snap shot of it in the YouTube video below.
New publication by our Group!
We are excited to share our latest publication about our activities as the Public Interest Group on Cancer Research! 🙂
We invite you to take a look at our publication – see the link below.
https://www.mdpi.com/1718-7729/32/10/579
Our work since 2021 has shown that there is a need to reach out to public in our province. Specifically, there is a need to inform and empower folks about cancer.
In the last two years, we have been creating a guest blog and podcast series on cancer, lived experience, cancer care and research, and advocacy.
- During this time frame, we have published 13 blog posts on our website and 28 podcast episodes on Spotify.
- Each of these pieces includes genuine, cozy, and informative conversations and perspectives by 36 guests. We enjoyed working with them, listening to their stories, and exchanging perspectives – all to benefit the population-at-large in NL and beyond.
- While 2 out of 3 guests are from NL, we also had guest from other provinces (NS, PEI, QC, BC, NWT) and other countries (England, Turkiye) – these guests helped us to see the wider view on the cancer front. We thank all of them for sharing their knowledge and wisdom with us.
- Our podcast hosts included our group members – Jason Wiseman, Janine Taylor-Cutting, Tracy Slaney, and Sevtap Savas. Our coordinator Kayla Crichton helped edit all podcasts episodes, write their summaries, and hosted one episode. We had lots of fun 😊
- We have done something with this project that was not done before in our province. And we are very proud of this.
- Support by the Office of Public Engagement and NLSUPPORT staff is gratefully acknowledged. This project was possible because of the funds we received from the now-closed Office of Public Engagement in St. John’s campus, Memorial University. This office and its dedicated staff were critical in our success. We are unsure at the moment whether we can continue this and other group projects without funding. That is the sad reality of budget cuts.
We are incredibly honored to have published our experience, perspectives, and lessons learnt in this publication. It also gave us a unique opportunity to advocate for better public and patient contributor compensations globally.
This project has been fueled by care and compassion that we feel towards the people affected by cancer.
Cancer affects 2 in 5 people in our province. Its effects extend to family, friends, workplaces, and communities.
While we thought (and still think) that it is the obligation of the government of NL and the NL Health Services to inform and empower our population, we wanted to do our part as dedicated advocates.
Our group has been advocating for better cancer care, risk reduction, treatment, support services, and a system that works for all.
Please join us by reading the blogs, listening to our podcast episodes, and advocating for a better future in NL and beyond.
Thank you.
Sevtap Savas, PhD. October 19, 2025. St. John’s
Episode 28 – Cancer care is team care
In this episode we have Dr. Melanie Seal, and oncologist with the NL Health System explaining the main treatment modalities in cancer and how different oncology professionals coordinate together to provide the best care to patients.
Take a look
Episode 27 – Experiencing cancer as a community member in the Big Land
Our guest in this podcast is Justin Andrews from Labrador 🙂
In this episode, Justin shares his reasons to advocate for people and Labrador communities, barriers to healthcare access, community and other support in Labrador that help address cancer’s impact, and champion healthcare providers in the region.
Take a look
Episode 26 – Hereditary cancers
We are pleased to air our 26th podcast episode today 🙂
Wondering about cancers running in the family and what you/we can do about them?
Dr. Lesa Dawson explains
Listen to her🎧
Episode 25 – Joy of reducing suffering through psychosocial oncology
Listen to our new podcast with Dr. Sheila Garland on psychosocial oncology and healing in cancer!
Episode 24 – Patient influencers of research
In our newest podcast episode, Dr. Holly Etchegary talks to Jason Wiseman and Janine-Taylor Cutting about how patients and family members influence and progress the health-related research.
Take a look ❤️