Behind the Scenes – April 2018

Well, another month has flown by and it is the end of April, which means we are due for another Behind The Scenes look at life at MStranslate.  So what have we been up to?

As you have seen over the past few weeks, we have been exploring collaborations with a few of our US colleagues in multiple sclerosis research.  We were very lucky to have the opportunity to meet and interview Dr Terry Wahls from the University of Iowa.  Dr Wahls is well known throughout the MS community for the lifestyle modification approach that she has used to manage her own disease.  Obviously, having seen and heard a lot about Dr Wahls previously, it was great to be able to finally meet her in person.  She is an incredibly warm and generous person, who gave freely of her time and it was clear to see that she genuinely cares about her research and improving the lives of people living with MS.

The diet component of her plan is the subject of clinical trials that she is now in the planning phase for, having received a US$1.5 million grant from the National MS Society.  We have broken down the interview recording into two sections – the first involves a discussion of her personal experiences and how they led to her current research, whereas the second is centred around her responses to questions that were submitted by the MStranslate community.  These videos can be found here.

We have also been very fortunate to be able to publish a number of articles written exclusively for MStranslate by Dr Travis Stiles (CEO, Novoron Bioscience).  During my regular conversations with Travis, it has become very obvious how passionately he feels about the topics that he is writing about and the importance of engaging the community in these discussions.  It is amazing to be able to get this sort of insight from someone who is working in the trenches of multiple sclerosis research and treatment development.  This really provides us all with a unique view that we otherwise would not have access to.  We highly recommend that everyone reads his series of articles on our website.

April also saw the formation of our community board and we are hugely thankful to everyone who nominated to be part of it.  We will have our first meeting in May and we look forward to be able to share more detailed information with those members on the research and science communication environment that we find ourselves in, as well as receive their feedback on areas we can improve.

The other major focus during April was on devising a plan to help support MS research through our fundraising initiative.  Having launched the campaign earlier this year, a few key points have become apparent to us.  Firstly, there seems to be huge support from the community for the idea.  Secondly, you think the first project that we are featuring (which can be found here) sounds fantastic and could provide really beneficial outcomes for people living with MS.  Thirdly, despite the first two points, that many people in the community are not in a position to help fund the research directly.  That last point is vital and something that we really want to clarify.  We COMPLETELY understand that many people in our community have many, many financial commitments that leave them unable to donate to these sorts of initiatives.  In reality, we have never wanted people with MS to necessarily support this work.  However, we would love people with MS to become advocates of this research to friends, family and members of their local community.  We are currently working within our local networks to encourage businesses to help support this research project.  As an added incentive, we are always happy to talk to people about how we can provide some promotion of them and their companies in return for their generous donations.

Lastly, it is with great excitement that we can announce that MStranslate will be receiving the MSL 2017 Seeing MS Award on Saturday 5th May in Blackburn.  If anyone lives locally and would like to attend, we posted the details on our Facebook page on the 30th April.  Both Eric and myself would love the opportunity to meet as many members of our community as possible and will make ourselves available to chat after the presentation.  You may also be aware that, off the back of winning this award, MStranslate have started writing short research articles for the MSL InTouch monthly eNewsletter and quarterly magazine.  To stay up to date with these articles and other interesting MSL content and news, you can subscribe to receive the publications here.

Thanks again for all your support and I look forward to providing you with more exciting updates at the end of May!