On Fri 27th of March the John Walton Muscular Dystrophy Research Centre at Newcastle organised a workshop entitled ‘Participants not subjects – engaging patients and families in paediatric clinical research’. The morning was well attended by the public engagement and patient involvement officers across the Faculty of Medical Sciences, experts in ethics and representatives of the patient groups.The workshop was a great success and gathered feedback from such a wide range of backgrounds and viewpoints. Here’s the final report.