Dr Gail Eva

My research focuses on the social, psychological and occupational consequences of cancer-related disability – in particular vocational rehabilitation, goal-setting, rehabilitation outcome measures in cancer and palliative care, rehabilitation in neurological cancers, and non-pharmacological interventions for managing fatigue. I am particularly interested in the way that people with life-limiting illness conceptualise disability and the implications of this for rehabilitation.

I completed my PhD research at the University of Stirling in 2007, and subsequently held Macmillan Cancer Suport and NIHR post-doctoral fellowships at the University of Oxford and UCL respectively. I am currently a Co-Investigator on the NIHR-funded SURECAN study, which is investigating an intervention called ACT Plus in the aftercare of cancer patients. ACT Plus is a talking therapy based on Acceptance and Committment Therapy (ACT) which integrates physical activity and work support where these are deemed important by the patient. 

Research grants and awards

• 2018 – 2023 NIHR Programme Grant £2.5 million. SUrvivors Rehabilitation Evaluation after CANcer (SURECAN). Co-investigator; member of the Grant Management Committee. Responsibility for developing, implementing, training  and supervising the vocational rehabilitation component of the intervention. CIs: Professor Steph Taylor, Queen Mary University London, and Professor Trudie Chalder, King's College London.               
• 2017 – 2018 Teach Brunel & Royal Literary Fund £9,857. What kind of feedback on academic writing helps students improve the way they write? Co-Principal Investigator.    
• 2016 – 2018 Health Education North West London (HENWL) Strategic Investment Award  £22,843,66. Educating undergraduate occupational therapy and physiotherapy students in motivational interviewing: feasibility and effectiveness. Co-investigator. CI: Dr Jennifer Fortune, Brunel University.
• 2014 – 2016 NIHR Programme Development Grant £98,257.50. SUrvivors Rehabilitation Evaluation after CANcer (SURECAN). Co-investigator.  CI: Professor Peter White, Queen Mary Univerisity London.        
• 2012 – 2016 NIHR Post-doctoral Research Fellowship £354,765. The REJOIN study (REhabilitation for Job and Occupational INdependence) – a feasibility study of a randomised controlled trial to evaluate a vocational rehabilitation intervention for people with cancer.
• 2010 – 2012 Macmillan Cancer Support £158,000. Vocational rehabilitation for people with cancer: realistic and cost evaluation. Co-investigator. CI: Dr Diane Playford, UCL.    
• 2008 – 2010 Macmillan Cancer Support £51,028. Research Training Fellowship. This Fellowship supported training in statistics, systematic reviews and RCT methodology.
• 2007 – 2008 Oxfordshire Health Services Research Committee £47,737. The management of fatigue in patients with advanced cancer: a feasibility study of a customised rehabilitation intervention. Co-applicant. CI: Mary Black, Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust.
• 2003 – 2005 Oxfordshire Health Services Research Committee £53,421. Spinal cord compression secondary to cancer: disability and rehabilitation. Lead Researcher. (This study was the basis of my PhD.)