Dave Chuter

Dave’s journey started when diagnosed with OG cancer in 2006, he wanted to talk to another patient but there was not a local support group available, so with my medical teams help Dave set a support group in December 2006 which is still running now with monthly meetings, this led to learning about research to be able to help patients understand their treatment pathway on a trial. Patient support is so important for many patients and their carers, loved ones and family members. There are so many ways this an be done via patient-to-patient support, building the resources and information patients need and being their voice in research.

Dave joined a local Cancer Partnership Research Group in 2009, which became the template for the NIHR Clinical Research Network (CRN), now the Research Development Network (RDN)
Since 2010 he has been involved with the charity ICPV (Independent Cancer Patient’s Voice) and have helped set up and run the ICPV VOICE course to train Advocates in the science and methods of research and empower them to be equal partners in all research.

Dave was elected as the Chair of the OPA (Oesophageal Patients Association) in 2017 and served until 2020, he is still involved with the charity as a patient advisor and patient buddy.
Since then, he has been and still is involved with many groups and organisations that can support and help patients, being the patient voice and using his lived experience to build the collaboration, networking and partnerships between Patient Advocates and researchers, especially with early career researchers by delivering PPI training sessions for a number of organisations and medical schools.

DiCE Board member focus
My focus has always been to ensure all research has the voice of and input from patients at every stage from developing the research question, designing the study, delivering (and recruiting participants if clinical) and dissemination, for me this is working with both patient advocates and researchers to build the collaboration and partnerships, especially with early career researchers to build stronger future partnerships.

Mentoring and empowering patient advocates is what we are already doing. Seeing the recent focus on early onset cancers has certainly shown how patients can step up and get involved. This will continue and show the world how it should and can be done.
DiCE has grown and is growing, we are the organisation to go to for researchers and patients globally, and with our fantastic team and patients, we know we can stay there and grow even more in the future.