Rosa successfully applied for one of Hallam's fully funded Vice-Chancellors PhD Scholarships in 2015 and is now working with Dr Liam Bourke in the Centre for Sports and Exercise Science to improve treatments for prostate cancer. Rosa's survived childhood lymphoma and her experiences motivated her to pursue a research career and help the fight against cancer.

'My interest in cancer research began at the age of sixteen when I was diagnosed with a type of blood cancer called Hodgkins Lymphoma. My experience during my illness wasn't great, so I wanted to turn this around and bring something positive out of the situation and decided on a career in oncology.

'I applied to Sheffield Hallam because they are doing some world leading research in this area already and it was a great opportunity to join a world class research team. My PhD has given me the chance to uniquely offer both patient and scientific perspectives into cancer research and the scholarship that I received has been really crucial to my studies. Without it, I wouldn't have been able to produce the high level quality research that I have done.

'My main area of research is in advanced prostate cancer. My work particularly focuses on exercise interventions in men with end stage prostate cancer or metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer. There hasn't been a great amount of research done for this group of patients and they've been quite a neglected group with only a handful of therapeutic developments in recent years. I hope that my work could really transform the quality of life of these patients.

'Additional funding for this project is crucial because clinical studies, by nature, are very expensive to conduct. Additional support would help to fund tests and labs, as well as specialist clinical exercise science staff.

'Sheffield Hallam has provided me with a great opportunity to carry out this research in an excellent environment but equally with excellent support, especially from my research team who I hope to work with long into the future.'