MS Trust trustees and patrons
The ten trustees and four patrons all bring to the charity different skills, knowledge and experience: understanding of MS, charity law and finance, medicine, therapy and nursing. Four have MS themselves and five have MS in their immediate family.
Trustees
Mike Barnes is Professor of Neurological Rehabilitation at the University of Newcastle and the Clinical Director of Hunters Moor Neuro Rehab Ltd. He has a long-standing interest in MS, particularly in applied research and in the improvement of symptom management. He is currently Chairman of the UK Acquired Brain Injury Forum (UKABIF).
Dr Alexander Burnfield recently retired as a Consultant in Child and Family Psychiatry. He has written and lectured extensively on MS, been an active campaigner for the needs of people with MS and helped found Persons With MS International.
Helen Caulfield is Head of Legal at the Human Tissue Authority. She worked for many years at the Royal College of Nursing.
Russell Hardy is a founding trustee. He has a strong commercial and accounting background having held senior posts at a number of companies in the retail sector. He is currently Chair of Hunters Moor Neuro Rehab Ltd, Chair of the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic and District Hospital, Governor of Nuffield Health and a Trustee of the UK Acquired Brain Injury Forum. He has experience of living with MS in his immediate family
Jill Holt is a founding trustee. She has worked in the MS voluntary sector for over 30 years years and brings to the Trust her expertise in fundraising as well as knowledge gained from living with MS in her immediate family.
Chris Jones was a co-founder of the MS Trust in 1993 and retired as Chief Executive in July 2008. Her passionate belief in the need for good quality information and in fighting for improved health services for people with MS have shaped the work of the MS Trust.
Dr Dawn Langdon is Reader in Neuropsychology at Royal Holloway, University of London and is qualified in clinical, health and neuro-psychology. Her research interests focus on psychological aspects of MS, including multinational studies of cognition and the effects of medication.
Thea Longley is a solicitor with Bates, Wells & Braithwaite specialising in work for charities and social enterprises.
Bernadette Porter is an MS nurse consultant at the National Hospital for Neurology & Neurosurgery, London. She pioneered the role of the MS specialist nurse and was the founding chair of the UK MS Specialist Nurse Association in 2001.
Neil Scolding is Burden Professor of Clinical Neurosciences and Director of the Institute at Frenchay Hospital in Bristol. His research interest is in exploring the role of stem cells in tissue repair in MS and how that may translate into treatment.
Patrons
Edith Rifkind trained as a zoologist and worked as a researcher in the Department of Medicine at Edinburgh University. She was diagnosed with primary progressive MS in 1997.
Sarah Joiner took early retirement from the Department of Health in 2007. She is actively involved in her local community and several national charities. Diagnosed in 1981, she contributes as an Expert Patient to a number of forums on long term neurological conditions, with a particular interest in vocational rehabilitation. Sarah credits her "get up and go" to her wonderful family and the brilliant MS multi-disciplinary team at the National Hospital in London..
Laurence and Jackie Llewelyn-Bowen have long been associated with the MS Trust. Whilst Laurence is well known for his flamboyance and flair from his television appearances, fewer people may realise Jackie's influence in their design business. They have donated designs for a range of cards not only in memory of Laurence's mother who had MS, but also for Jackie's mother who was recently diagnosed. Laurence and Jackie bring to the MS Trust a 'can do' approach summed up in their motto 'Don't dream it. Be it'.
