Roger Wilson

Patient Advocate, Sarcoma Patients Advocacy Global Network (SPAGN)

Roger Wilson was diagnosed with a sarcoma in 1999 and has had six recurrences. His latest surgery was in 2013. He has been a patient advocate since 2002. He has chaired a number of national research initiatives in prevention, survivorship, and palliative care and served on the Board of the National Cancer Research Institute. In 2003, he founded Sarcoma UK. The charity now has a full-time staff working on information, support, awareness and research. Sarcoma UK now raises approx. £2.5m per annum.

Roger was a co-founder of Sarcoma Patients Euronet in 2009. SPAEN recently re-named to Sarcoma Patients Advocacy Global Network (SPAGN) to reflect its growing global reach. SPAGN is working with the sarcoma research professionals organisation CTOS on priority setting.

He was a member of faculty for the ECCO/EORTC/ASCO Workshop on Methods in Cancer Clinical Research (MCCR) between 2007 and 2019. He has helped establish the EORTC Patient Panel and develop their involvement strategy. He also works closely with the EORTC QoL Group.

Following Brexit he has been involved with MHRA, the UK medicines regulator, helping establish patient involvement in the medicines approval process.

He was appointed CBE in the 2011 New Year Honours and holds honorary degrees from the Universities of Sheffield and Lancaster. By background, he is a journalist and TV producer.

Update: July 2022