“At the end of the LIAM Mc Trial, my wife said, ‘I’ve got my husband back’. It was an absolute gamechanger”
Funding renewal for pioneering trial for men with advanced prostate, bladder and kidney cancers
4th August 2026: A pioneering Irish Cancer Society-funded trial called LIAM Mc (Linking In with Advice and supports for Men with Metastatic Cancer) has had a transformative impact on cancer patients and recently received a funding renewal.
The Cork University Hospital-based LIAM Mc Trial, designed and run by Cancer Research @UCC, saw men receive specialist physiotherapy, nursing and dietician support weekly, to empower them to maintain physical activity to enhance their quality of life.
This was complemented by holistic care education to ensure their practical and emotional, as well as physical, needs were met.
John Bradley (66) from Kanturk, Co. Cork, is one of the men who benefited from taking part in the LIAM MC Trial. John was diagnosed with stage four prostate cancer in 2022 after routine blood tests revealed he had high PSA levels.
Reflecting on how he felt when has diagnosed with cancer, John said: “The first thing I remember thinking was, ‘Oh no, now I’ve to tell my wife and our two boys that I have cancer.’ I do remember the doctor saying that while I had advanced stage four cancer, he said it’ll be treated and hopefully it’ll all be OK.”
John was successfully treated with 39 sessions of radiotherapy and was put on a hormone treatment.
John, who felt lost after finishing treatment, said his doctor told him about the LIAM Mc Trial three months after he finished radiotherapy: “He said it was a new 12-week course, and would I be interested in doing it. I said yes.
“The morning it started we were in the Mardyke gym in University College Cork. I’d never been in a gym ever in my life before that morning, so it was hard for me for a while. The second hour after the gym we had a talk, and it changed every time – sometimes it was an Irish Cancer Society Daffodil Centre Cancer Nurse, a dietitian, a social worker, an oncology psychologist, or staff from the Cork ARC Cancer Support House.
“By week six, the seven of us on the LIAM Mc Trial were all really into it and enjoying it. They tested our muscle mass at the start of the course and at the end of it, and by the end of the course they found that my muscle mass had increased by 40%. It was amazing and it really flipped things for me.”
As a result of the LIAM Mc Trial, John has changed his lifestyle and is now a regular swimmer and gym-goer.
Commenting on the impact of the LIAM Mc Trial, John said: “It made me do something that felt really good for me, it was the tide that raised the boats for all of us on the trial.
“At the end of the course, my wife said, ‘I’ve got my husband back’. I hadn’t realised that I wasn’t the same person after I was diagnosed with cancer and went through treatment.
“If LIAM Mc wasn’t there, I’d just be sat at home. The trial was an absolute gamechanger for me, no doubt about it.”
John, who is now living well after cancer, said: “I’m brilliant now. There’s no trace of cancer in my blood tests, and my doctor said if it comes back again, we can deal with it, but I don’t need to be worrying about that.
“I feel like I’m in a place that I couldn’t imagine being in a couple of years ago, I’m grand now and my mental health is perfect, and I think the LIAM Mc Trial is a big part of that.”
The two-year LIAM Mc Trial was the result of an initial €300k funding commitment awarded to University College Cork from the Irish Cancer Society. It has now completed enrolment, with analysis of the results ongoing.
Feedback from participants has been overwhelmingly positive and the LIAM Mc Trial won the Irish Cancer Society’s Survivorship Project of the Year Award 2026.
The LIAM Mc Trial recently received additional funding from the Irish Cancer Society with support also from Pfizer, which will allow for a deep dive into the data collected during the trial.
The LIAM Mc team will now have dedicated team members with protected time – initially for two years – because of this funding. Their roles will be to further explore the data and answer additional research questions, such as whether muscle mass changed as a result of the trial, and to gather longer term follow up data.
Commenting on the success of the LIAM Mc Trial and the funding renewal, Dr Brendan Noonan, Co-Principal Investigator of the LIAM Mc Trial and Senior Lecturer and Vice Dean of Undergraduate Education in the School of Nursing and Midwifery in UCC, said: "The LIAM Mc Trial was established to address an important gap in cancer survivorship care for men living with advanced prostate, bladder and kidney cancers.
"The response from participants has exceeded our expectations. Men have told us that the programme has improved their confidence, physical function, wellbeing and ability to manage life after treatment. Hearing John say that the programme was a 'gamechanger', and that his wife felt she had 'got her husband back', captures the real impact this programme has had on participants and their families.
"We are incredibly grateful to the Irish Cancer Society for their continued support, and to Pfizer for partnering in this next phase of the research. The additional funding will enable us to undertake more detailed analyses of the data collected during the trial, including exploring changes in muscle mass and other important survivorship outcomes, while also gathering longer-term follow-up data.
"Ultimately, our ambition is to generate robust evidence that will inform future survivorship services for men with advanced cancers, ensuring that supportive care becomes an integral part of cancer treatment rather than an optional extra. We are excited to continue this work and to share the findings with patients, healthcare professionals and policymakers over the coming years."
Dr Claire Kilty, Head of Research at the Irish Cancer Society, said: “Clinical trials and studies in Ireland have a profound impact on the lives of people affected by cancer. They are a driving force in improving not only treatments and outcomes, but also quality of care and life beyond cancer, as demonstrated by the impact the LIAM Mc Trial has had on patients like John.
"The Irish Cancer Society is proud to have funded the LIAM Mc Trial. We look forward to the results as they are analysed and are deeply grateful to partner with Pfizer in providing additional funding to the LIAM Mc team. This continued research will help us better understand the trial’s full impact and guide the future of survivorship care for men with advanced cancers in Ireland."
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For further information and interview requests contact Irish Cancer Society Communications: communications@irishcancer.ie / 087 645 3867
If anyone has any concerns about cancer, contact the Irish Cancer Society’s Support Line on Freephone 1800 200 700, or email supportline@irishcancer.ie
