Advance in MS Research

Debbie Purdy (pictured), who is campaigning for change in assisted suicide laws, suffers from multiple sclerosis.

Multiple sclerosis (MS) has a devastating effect on lives with more than 100,000 sufferers in the UK and two million worldwide. Scotland has the largest number of sufferers per capita and it has been proven that the disease is more prevalent in cold climates and attacks twice as many women as men.

Professor Anat Achiron of Tel Aviv University's Faculty of Medicine has uncovered a way of detecting MS years before the illness hits sufferers. Experts predict that the discovery could lead to early treatment to prevent the disease harming patients.

In this country experts have discovered a link between Vitamin D and MS and research into this connection is ongoing. If the disease can be diagnosed long before any symptoms are evident medics will be able to treat the patient as early as possible to prevent further damage within the nervous system.

This advance in MS research will not assist towards a cure because there is no cure at present for this debilitating illness, but any test that can identify MS very early on in the course of the disease can be nothing but good news.

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MS and Vitamin D

A few months ago I wrote about Ryan McLaughlin who single handedly petitioned the Scottish Government to produce guidelines on vitamin D supplements for children and pregnant women, launch an awareness campaign and investigate the link between multiple sclerosis and the vitamin.

The result of his efforts have paid off handsomely and now an international conference is to be held in Scotland on 27 April to discuss the health effect of the vitamin.  Leading researchers into links between vitamin D deficiency and MS are expected to attend.

Last week, as the Public Petitions Committee agreed to close Ryan's petition, members congratulated him for his achievement.  I do too.

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Remember This?

Remember this post? It was the story of young Ryan McLaughlin's one man 'Halt MS' campaign.

Today on the comment section of the post this was written:

mcl1929 said...

Hi Every1

My name is Kirsten, Im Ryan's Mum. Thanks to all of you for your lovely comments, and yes im am so proud of Ryan mostley because he aint doing it for me, he is doing it for future generations of Scots.

You can find out alll about ryans campaign at http://www.shineonscotland.org.uk

Best regards to u all

Kirsten x

11 November 2009 15:38

Many thanks for taking the time to write Kirsten. I'm sure my readers will be delighted to know their comments are read and appreciated, far and wide.

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Ryan McLaughlin - The One Man 'Halt MS' Campaigner

Ryan and his Mum

Fourteen year old Ryan McLaughlin from Drumchapel, Glasgow, was interviewed by Victoria Derbyshire on Radio5Live yesterday morning. It was his Scots voice which first attracted my attention and then the subject. His aims are to ensure pregnant women and children are given vitamin D (the 'sunshine' vitamin) to prevent the disease, to raise awareness of the benefits of taking vitamin D and to have the RDA altered to a suitable dose.

Ryan's Mum suffers from multiple sclerosis and he admitted he'd missed quite a bit of school because he had to take his fair share, along with his Dad, of caring for her. "There's nothing that can be done for Mum now but something can be done to prevent anyone else getting MS. I'm back at school now because Mum's not too bad if she sticks to her routine," he told Ms Derbyshire.

This young lad's latest achievement is that he's been granted a Government summit to discuss his pleas. Nicola Sturgeon also agreed to the summit to raise awareness of the impact of vitamin D on MS. Many scientists believe this could prevent up to 80% of cases of MS, which currently has no cure and affects 12,500 Scots, more per head than anywhere in the world.

When asked on radio if he had considered how the vitamin would be administered, quick as a flash he said, "In milk for school children or in bread."

I'm sure all of us would like to see this debilitating disease conquered in Scotland. It does say quite a bit about the effectiveness of the MS lobby on governments though, when it takes a 14 old to break the deadlock between pro-campaigners and the Scientific Committee on Nutrition.

Well done Ryan and may I wish your campaign every success. You'll never be short of work when you leave school - the lobbying firms will be queueing at your door.

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Two Brave Women

I thought it necessary to record my admiration for two women who were prominent in the media yesterday. Firstly Debbie Purdy who finally achieved victory in her long running legal battle to have the law on assisted suicide clarified. Her elation showed in every interview and although she looked exhausted, her smile was still there late last night when she appeared on Newsnight. We all know MS is an incurable disease and one which affects each sufferer differently. To undertake a battle with the legal system is ordeal enough for those who are physically fit - to do so as an MS sufferer shows extraordinary determination and strength of will.

The second woman I wish to applaud is Rose Gentle, the mother of Gordon Gentle who was killed in Iraq. Rose fought extremely hard to have an inquest held into Gordon's death and it resulted in the coroner stating the army's failure to fit an electronic device to his Landrover would have prevented the bomb detonating. She brings a palable passion to her campaign against the Iraq war and now the Afghanistan war. I heard her on Radio Scotland yesterday explaining her intention to accept Lord Chilcott's invitation go to London and personally discuss with him the questions military families of the fallen needed answered by the newly formed Iraq Inquiry. She will ensure Lord Chilcott is left in no doubt about the families' wish list.

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MS Society Scotland loses their Patron, J K Rowling

I expect most of us know, or at least know of someone who suffers from MS (multiple sclerosis).  Scotland has the highest rate of this debilitating disease in the world and contributes a great deal to research not least through the MS Society Scotland.

J K Rowling has been the patron of this society for several years and has taken her duties very seriously, but she is standing down because she feels she "cannot be the public face of a charity that is changing beyond recognition."  One of the changes she refers to is conflict between the Scottish arm of the charity and management in London.  London wants to control the UK finances of the MS Society and the Scottish arm wishes to keep locally raised funds and bank them with a Scottish bank.  

The inability of English charity bosses to come to terms with Scottish devolution has been blamed for the internal power struggle within the MS Society that led Ms Rowling to quit as its Scottish patron.  There are many charities in the UK which put 'Scotland' after their names but the money is pooled in England and I've always considered this unfair, especially when we have such centres of excellence in medical research.

From the Times:

'Charity insiders said that the MS Society was one of a several UK organisations unwilling to cede power to their Scottish branches in the wake of political change. The arrival of an SNP Government is thought to have created a climate in which the Scots have become more assertive about their need for more autonomy.' 

The ignorance and political bias of these charities is astounding and the MS Society is sure to regret losing such professionals as Mark Hazelwood, the Scottish based director who left last December after nine years at the charity, was highly regarded and known to hold different view to the English management in some areas.

I would like to suggest that anyone in Scotland wishing to contribute towards MS research in Scotland contacts Ms Rowling to ask the address for the payment.  As she intends to continue to give financial help direct to research in Edinburgh, I'm sure she'll be delighted to know there are others of a similar mindset.  There is also a research centre in Aberdeen.

May I thank her for such excellent work, undertaken with much dedication, during her period of office.  I know she will be sadly missed by many in the MS Society Scotland, not least the sufferers.

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