Henrietta Campbell,Chief executive and medical director of the All Ireland Cancer Foundation.
Personal/family:Married to Bill with three grown-up children.
What figure from the world of medicine or health do you most admire?
The late Prof Molly McGeown, an eminent nephrologist who established a world renowned service in Belfast for patients with renal disease.
What other career might you have chosen?
Something creative and fulfilling like a poet or an artist. I paint and work with textiles and love to make things.
If you could grant three wishes for the health service, what would they be?
The promise of stem cell technology realised, everyone fully engaged in a healthy lifestyle and comprehensive compassionate care for the elderly.
What is your greatest fear?
Getting old and frail in today's health service.
Have you ever been a patient and were you a good one?
I underwent some neurosurgery and now realise the powerlessness of being a patient. Hospitals don't work for the patients; they work for the system. You wait and wait and wait and nothing happens in a way that is orderly for the patient. I found my time as a patient frustrating and lonely. I felt isolated and a bit afraid.
When or where are you happiest?
Sitting in the sunshine beside the sea with my close family.
How do you cope with stress?
Dark chocolate.
What is the trait you most admire in yourself?
I am never really that satisfied with myself.
What is the trait you most dislike in yourself?
The fact that I'm never really satisfied with myself.
Do you use alternative or complementary medicine or therapies?
No. But I might be tempted if conventional medicine did not work.
Who or what makes you laugh?
Any of my three children and Jonathon Ross. I like vintage Norman Wisdom, but I never did quite understand the TV programme The Office.
What is your motto?
Each day brings a new opportunity to be grasped.
What is your favourite TV or radio programme?
Newsnighton BBC 2 and the occasional quality drama.
What books would you bring to a desert islands?
The Collected Poems of Seamus Heaney, Mourne Countryby Estyn Evans to remind me of where I come from and the King James version of the Bible.