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On 11 November 2015, there was an open day at the John Radcliffe Hospital for brain tumour patients and carers. The aim was to show what clinical researchers in Oxford are doing to improve diagnosis and care. The event was organised in partnership between the Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences and the Cancer Research UK Oxford Centre, and was supported by the NIHR Oxford Biomedical Research Centre and the Brain Tumour Charity.

These sorts of events help to demystify medicine and I hope there'll be more of them. - Event attendee

Fifty people of a wide range of ages attended the day, which included tours of the Neuropathology Lab and the Oxford Centre for Functional MRI of the brain. Visitors had the chance to look down a microscope and discover how tissue is prepared for analysis, as well as talking to a neurosurgeon about how he performs operations, and seeing an MRI scanner in action.

This event built on a previous open day on 13 March 2015, when we gave 80 people ranging in age from 17 to 70 a tour of the facility. After an introductory talk about the importance of having a brain bank, attendees were divided into four groups for a laboratory tour, during which they had the opportunity to look down a microscope at a healthy and diseased human brain; see a real human brain; observe how tissue is prepared for analysis; and learn about research projects involving brain bank tissue.