Frank Russell: Co-founder of LARCC, Lakelands Area Retreat and Cancer Centre in Mullingar, Co Westmeath
Occupation: Co-founder of LARCC (Lakelands Area Retreat and Cancer Centre in Mullingar, Co Westmeath), Inspector of Air Accidents, Department of Transport.
Personal and family: A Blanchardstown man with Clare connections. Three sons and a daughter - Mark, Eoin, David and Eleanor.
What figure from the world of health/medicine do you most admire?
Prof Michael Walsh and his wonderful team at Beaumont Hospital ENT Oncology Department.
What alternative career might you have chosen?
Medicine, if the means were available. Entry points would not have been an issue.
If you were appointed Minister for Health, what would be your first priority?
To formalise secondary care for cancer patients in the post operative/post treatment phase of their recovery. A critical phase for so many.
Do you have a phobia/what is your greatest fear?
No. Certainly not flying.
Have you ever been a patient and were you a good one?
Yes, I believe I was, in the most trying circumstances following invasive surgery and recovery. My meagre response to staff kindness.
What three books would you bring to a desert island?
Not an easy question. Con Houlihan's In so Many Words, Anam Cara by John O'Donoghue, and that incomparable whodunit, The Name of the Rose, by Umberto Ecco.
Have you a fail-safe method of dealing with stress?
Where possible, walking in the Burren, followed by at least one pint and a chat with my old friends in Doolin, to whom the concept of stress is just that, a concept.
What is your favourite TV or radio programme?
Channel 4 News at 7 p.m. and any radio show hosted by either of the two Ciaráns, MacMathúna or Hanrahan.
If you did not live in Ireland, where would you choose to spend the rest of your life?
Antibes, in the South of France.
Summarise yourself in around 12 words?
Most improbable co-founder of LARCC who discovered unplumbed depths of determination and hope through illness.
Do you use alternative medicine/therapies?
I personally prefer an occasional prayer to Our Lady of Lourdes.
Who or what makes you laugh?
As a cancer survivor I am game for a laugh for any reason and sometimes for no reason at all. Even the mention of Dermot Morgan or Peter Sellers is enough to bring a smile to my face.
- (Interview by Dr Muiris Houston)