The aims and design of ACST-2 have been discussed with the Oxford Clinical Trial Service Unit (CTSU) patient focus group, which was established in 2012 to allow members of the public who have, or are at risk of, vascular disease to criticise and help evaluate ongoing and planned studies conducted by the CTSU.

Mr David Simpson is the lay member on the ACST-2 Trial Steering Committee. He was closely involved in study design, drafting the trial protocol and original patient information leaflet, and eloquently represents the public interest, both formally at annual Trial Steering Committee meetings and informally throughout the years. His role is ongoing as the trial continues.

The ACST-2 trial was adopted by the Stroke Research Network as soon as funding was confirmed by Health Technology Assessment (HTA) programme. This helped us with local contacts, meetings, ethics approval applications, recruitment (of the planned 20% of UK patients) and follow-up in the UK. Annual Stroke Network meetings in Newcastle and London were particularly helpful by enabling us to give platform presentations of our work and discuss it with attendees from potential new centres in front of our posters. We also attended, presented and had stands at the Thames Cardiovascular Network Group meetings in 2013 and 2014, the Vascular Society (the UK National Society for Vascular Surgery) and the British Society of Interventional Radiology (for UK interventional radiologists). The annual UK Stroke Forum was also important; attendees came from every stroke care discipline and included stroke sufferers and representatives from patient groups. We have had a stand at most of these meetings since the trial’s inception, winning a prize for our novel UK hub-and-spoke recruitment model at the UK Stroke Forum.