Day in the life

Orla Dolan of Breakthrough Cancer Research tells Niamh Hennessy about her day.

MORNING:

I get up at 7.30am but I am definitely a night owl rather than an early bird. After some controlled chaos, I get our two boys, Colin, 7, and Eoghan, 9, off to school and get on the road to work. By 9am I’m at my desk at the fundraising office of Breakthrough Cancer Research on College Road, Cork. It’s a national organisation [part of Cork Cancer Research Centre] dedicated to raising funds for research into the development of new treatments for cancers that do not currently respond to conventional therapies and or which currently have poor survival rates. Our research scientists’ work has been acclaimed internationally and I’m part of a team of three who are responsible for raising funds to improve existing therapies and develop new, effective treatments for cancer. The office is particularly busy at present, with enquiries from all over Ireland, so I have to prioritise every day to keep a certain degree of order in my work. Once I know how we are progressing, I will spend my morning reviewing what fundraising and awareness events we have planned in the short and long term. This involves everything from checking how many people have signed up to take part, to the logistics and marketing of the events and how we might engage with as many people as possible.

AFTERNOON:

Afternoon is my favourite part of the day, as this is when I meet our cancer research scientists and clinicians. I familiarise myself with the projects they are working on, what developments they have made and discuss what progress we can report to our interest groups and the public. I have a bachelor in science degree and a masters in business so I can understand the science behind the research and translate that into less technical jargon. At the moment, the scientists are working on ground- breaking research for the development of three new treatments for lung cancer. Lung cancer is unfortunately the most common cause of cancer death in Ireland, so advancing these new treatments is vital.

Public relations is also a big part of my role, bringing interested people into our labs to see what we are working on, or bringing that knowledge and information into the community so that people can see for themselves the real impact their donations are having on research into cancer.

EVENING:

In the late afternoon, I’m usually on the phone, setting up meetings and events around the country. Just recently I travelled to the US with Enterprise Ireland to set up research and fundraising collaborations. Often it’s necessary that I travel abroad or attend events around the country, so accepting that the cause is bigger than yourself is something I have come to accept and embrace as part of my job.

By the end of the day, I am home and back in mum mode, taking the boys to rugby, soccer, hurling or piano, having dinner and collapsing into bed.