Team member at Tallaght University Hospital wins national award

Ashley Bazin who is Team Leader on the Oncology & Haematology Clinical Trials at Tallaght University Hospital (TUH) has just won the Irish Cancer Society Support Staff of the Year Award for 2023, in recognition of her contribution to driving forward Clinical Trials in TUH.

Ashley is an experienced research nurse and has been the Team Leader of the Oncology and Haematology Clinical Trials Unit at Tallaght University Hospital for over 16 years.

Ashley says her main focus is “on ensuring patients have access to the best treatment options as well as engaging with Cancer Trials Ireland and pharmaceutical companies to bring promising new treatments to patients.”

Her colleagues say Ashley is integral to the operation of the unit and plays multiple roles, research nurse, team leader, manager and teacher, while always being a strong advocate for the patients taking part in the trials.

In addition to coordinating a large portfolio of oncology and haematology trials, Ashley manages the funding for the entire unit.

She supports the investigators by helping them to find patients.

To do this, Ashley first meets with the patient to explain the trial.

She then stays in contact with the person during the research, ensuring their trial medicines are available and that all the necessary trial assessments are done and the valuable data recorded and saved.

One colleague said “Ashley is a wealth of information and a skilled trainer. She is always happy to share her knowledge and learnings with staff at TUH as well as the many Cancer Trials Ireland Project Managers and Clinical Research Associates and Monitors who engage with her on a daily basis.

“Ashley is a pleasure to work with and always replies to study queries quickly. Very often she works outside of the scope of a Team Leader as she strives to bring the best options to her patients.”

Ashley began working at Tallaght University Hospital when it first opened in 1998 and had previously been based at the Adelaide Hospital in Dublin City.

Her first role in TUH was to manage the Cardiology Clinical Trials which she did up until 2006 after which she began running the Oncology and Haematology trials.

Ashley is married with two children and has lived for many years in Naas, Co. Kildare and is originally from Dundalk, in Co. Louth.

She was nominated for this award by Cancer Trials Ireland.

This is the first time their nominee has ever been announced as the overall winner.

The awards ceremony took place in the Free Masons Hall on Molesworth Street in Dublin on the 27^th of February.