It's finding a cure for this awful disease that represents the best hope, in my view, for helping everyone affected by it. It's my small contribution to helping the researchers who may one day be able to make the really big discoveries. The award is currently funded until MS Frontiers 2019.
If you'd like to help me keep this award going beyond 2019, please feel free to make a contribution at my JustGiving page.
How is the bursary awarded?
The UK Multiple Sclerosis Society invites applications as part of their publicity for the MS Frontiers conference. Research students were asked to say why attendance at the 2015 conference would be beneficial for them. The MS Society's Research Network Steering Group - a group of people affected by MS - were asked to select two researchers who they felt should receive the award.
Elena received the first of this year's two awards. Elena is a PhD student at the University of Nottingham and is working to understand the aetiology of Multiple Sclerosis and the role of infections in the disease, specifically herpes viruses and their interactions with endogenous retroviruses.
This was her first MS Frontiers conference and I'm delighted that the bursary helped her attend and share a poster presentation of her research results so far with other researchers.
Luke received the second of this year's awards. Luke is a Health Psychology PhD student whose research work is investigating the long-term impact of using assistive devices on MS sufferers and their carers. This year's conference featured a scheduled programme on rehabilitation technology and shared decision making, so I'm pleased to have been able to assist Luke in making his contribution to the discussions.
July 9th would have been my mother's birthday and it's a fitting tribute to celebrate it this year by helping to publicise the work these researchers are carrying out in helping to beat Multiple Sclerosis. Thanks for reading!