JK Rowling donates £10 million for MS research centre

Pa
Tuesday 31 August 2010 15:58 BST
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Harry Potter author JK Rowling has donated £10 million to set up a new multiple sclerosis (MS) research clinic, it was announced today.

The writer said she believed the clinic, to be based at the University of Edinburgh, will become a world centre for excellence in its field.

It is also hoped work at the facility will help researchers find out more about other incurable neurological conditions, such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease and motor neurone disease.

The clinic will be named after Rowling's mother Anne, who suffered from MS and died at the age of 45.

The author said the new clinic, which is expected to be completed within a year, would place patients at the heart of the research and treatment process.

In a statement released today, she said: "It is with great pleasure and pride that I am donating £10 million to the Regenerative Neurology Clinic at the University of Edinburgh, which is to be named after my mother, Anne.

"I have supported research into the cause and treatment of multiple sclerosis for many years now, but when I first saw the proposal for this clinic, I knew that I had found a project more exciting, more innovative, and, I believe, more likely to succeed in unravelling the mysteries of MS than any other I had read about or been asked to fund.

"I am incredibly impressed by the calibre of clinicians and researchers that Edinburgh has already managed to attract to make this project a reality, and I truly believe that it is set to become a world centre for excellence in the field of regenerative neurology."

The Anne Rowling Regenerative Neurology Clinic will be based in a purpose-built facility within the University's Chancellor's Building, next to the city's Royal Infirmary at Little France.

University officials said the development will build on Edinburgh's "strong track records" in patient-focused clinical research on neurological disorders and in imaging of the brain and nervous system.

It follows the setting up of the Centre for Multiple Sclerosis Research at the university three years ago, which also received support from the author.

The university said Rowling's £10 million sum is the single largest donation she has given to a charitable cause. It is also the largest single donation the University has received.

Rowling quit as patron of the MS Society Scotland in April last year, claiming the charity was being riven by an internal row.

The multi-millionaire, who had supported the charity for nearly a decade, said conflict between the Scottish charity and management in London had resulted in a raft of other resignations.

Multiple sclerosis affects about 100,000 people in the UK and Scotland has one of the highest rates of MS in the world, with some 10,500 people having the condition.

It causes myelin, a protective layer surrounding nerve cells in the brain, to break down, leading to symptoms such as numbness, fatigue and weakness.

The exact cause of the disease is not fully understood, although genetics and environmental factors may play a part.

Rowling said the funds were to help attract world-class researchers to find a cure for the disease.

The 45-year-old said: "The Anne Rowling Regenerative Neurology Clinic will be mould-breaking in the way that it places patients at the heart of the research and treatment process.

"While multiple sclerosis will be at the heart of the research initiative, people with the many other diseases caused by neurodegeneration are likely to benefit from discoveries made here.

"So whole-heartedly do I believe in the concept of the clinic, and the passionate, dynamic people who are making it a reality, that I would have been thrilled to help wherever it had been situated. Nevertheless, the fact that it will be situated in Edinburgh, my home town, makes the project, if possible, even dearer to my heart.

"Edinburgh has given me so very much that I have been looking for a way to give something meaningful back to the city for a long time.

"I cannot think of anything more important, or of more lasting value, than to help the university attract world-class minds in the field of neuroregeneration, to build on its long and illustrious history of medical research and, ultimately, to seek a cure for a very Scottish disease."

University principal Professor Sir Timothy O'Shea welcomed the "exceptionally generous donation".

Professor Charles ffrench-Constant, co-director of the Centre for Multiple Sclerosis Research, added: "The Anne Rowling Regenerative Neurology Clinic will enable us to carry out studies that can inform laboratory research and, in turn, this knowledge can be translated back into treatments for patients."

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