Working Life: Grace Cappock, public affairs and communications

Grace Cappock; head of public affairs and communications with the Medical Research Charities Group.

6am

I’ve an early start to get lunches sorted for my two children, Ruby, 7, and Conor, 4, before leaving for work. My husband does the school run. I flick between Newstalk and Morning Ireland on the car radio to bring myself up to speed on the issues of the day.

8am

I have a quick look through the newspapers before checking my emails. There’s usually a good deal of correspondence to deal with as the Medical Research Charities Group is an umbrella group of more than 30 charities, all with an interest in research, including, inter alia, the Irish Cancer Society, the Alzheimer Society of Ireland, MS Ireland, Arthritis Ireland. Our key priority is to help build up research capacity by working with members to identify research opportunities.

10am

I have a meeting with the research manager about our joint funding scheme which we run on an annual basis with the Health Research Board. Successful candidates are awarded up to €300,000 over a three-year period for charity-led research projects whereby 50% of the project is funded by the board and 50% is funded by the charity. Up to €18m has been allocated since this innovative scheme started in 2006.

11am

I have some meetings to arrange with politicians and stakeholders around our new manifesto which we launched in November. It’s essentially calling on the Government to ramp up investment in medical research, to streamline access to new life-changing therapies so patients can benefit without delay and to develop national patient disease registries.

Having registries, which already exist for cancer and cystic fibrosis, would ensure that information such as numbers diagnosed, survival rates, and geographic variations, across a range of conditions is captured, and trends and variations tracked to better inform policy and service development.

12noon

We have a steering group meeting for the Irish Health Research Forum which we set up in 2014 on foot of a report identifying gaps in the health research landscape. Our last forum looked at researcher careers. We have a lot of material to organise for the next forum event in May.

12.45pm

I work mornings only, so I head off to school pick-ups, homework, afterschool activities and dinner. I keep an eye on my emails throughout the rest of the day.