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iCAN SUMMIT 2026 – Ireland!

By EyeYPAG,

Between 12 – 17 July 2026, five eyeYPAG members, three parents and our eyeYPAG facilitator attended the iCAN SUMMIT –  a week long meeting for the international Children’s Advisory Network. Children and young people attended from all over the world, including South Africa, Mexico, Spain, France, USA, Poland and England, 72 children and young people all together.

Members of eyeYPAG took a leading role in planning the SUMMIT, hosting sessions, presenting individually and as a team. They contributed to fundraising for the opportunity which was generously sponsored by Moorfields Eye Charity. They made and developed international friendships and worked together with pharmaceutical companies to improve research for children and young people.

During the week the young people worked together on their ‘activity of the week’ – to co-create a Roadmap for delivery the of the International Position Paper on Youth Partnership in Healthcare they created at iCAN 2025. They spent each day working on this roadmap, starting with why the roadmap was important:

“if you’ve got an important destination – you can’t just drift”

To top off the week, eyeYPAG were awarded ‘outstanding advisory group’ in this international field.

Ethan was first to reflect on his week:

“On our first day of the summit, we started off with a warm welcome from Sabina, Abby and Lianne, where they spoke about what this summit would entail. We were put into pods (groups), which we would stay with throughout the week and work together with. We introduced ourselves to each other and started off with a fashion show ice breaker, where we were given materials and a subject, and as a group, we had to make an outfit and dress up a member of our pod.

Then I spoke about my experience as an individual with Stargardt’s disease and how I got involved with eyeYPAG and iCAN. Each member of eyeYPAG was a part of a different pod, so each member had a different part to contribute to throughout the week. We were tasked with creating a ‘roadmap’ for different criteria. On each day of the summit, we would work on the roadmap and would finally present our work, talking about what we contributed to it as well as what part we found most important.

As well as taking part in the work at the conference, we were located in a camp where after our day was done, we could take part in activities. I mostly enjoyed fishing, even though I didn’t catch anything, it was still fun to talk to the staff and learn how to throw the fishing line in. I also really enjoyed archery.

One of our favourite things about iCAN is the social aspect, where we are able to see old friends from previous summits as well as making new friends. Being a part of iCAN, I learn a lot from others, especially with presenting and how I myself can improve the way I present. I also find that our voices, as CYP, really get to shine. It shows how important our voices are, especially with those companies who return for more feedback. I feel as a group, seeing what others have achieved, we are more motivated to do a lot more as a group”

Elise also took a moment to share her experiences:

“The Ireland Conference, it went very successfully and seeing everyone from the last few conferences was great. We first checked in and wrote on these stars about who we were, our group and what we are looking forward to about the conference. Afterwards, we got to know our rooms and refreshed ourselves. Then we got into our groups and did little introductions about ourselves. After everyone got to know each other our group EyeYPAG started off the poster session, talking about our group and what we do. It felt very nerve-racking as we were the first group to start but afterwards I felt relieved to be able to do it. I enjoyed meeting everyone once again and seeing new faces and also seeing how this conference would be. We also had activities like fishing which I really enjoyed as it was my first time. What I’ll learn from the future from this conference, is that young peoples voices is very important in research and so are our ideas. I also know that these conferences have made me more confident in my speaking to people and crowds”

It was also a fantastic opportunity for our YPAG facilitators from the eYPAG Network to connect – from England, France, Scotland and Spain!

Look out for more updates from our iCAN eyeYPAG Team – it was an incredible week and we have lots to share!