ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses authors own experiences of becoming involved in this palliative care research project. This collaboration of service users and researcher involved us all working together as a team on the project. Members of the Service User Research Advisory Group (SURAG) were not the subjects of the research, nor were they interviewed as participants; rather they were involved to provide their perspective and their knowledge based on experience, on a wide range of research issues. Phil explained the role of SURAG to its eight members, and acknowledged that it would develop over time under the members' influence. Four of the members attended the same hospice day centre and so knew each other a little; the other four members, plus Phil, knew no one in the group. Phil had anxieties about the SURAG members at times, and there was a gradual shift from a fairly paternalistic position to a more equal and democratic position.
