Journalist with MS, Multiple Sclerosis Advocate, Honorary Research Fellow & Founder of the Rachel Horne Prize for Women's Research in MS
About Me
In 2009, I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS). In the hope of making sense of such an unpredictable disease, I started learning as much as I could about MS:
attending conferences, interviewing healthcare professionals and writing articles as author/co-author for publications such as The BMJ, Nature Reviews Neurology and Neurology.
Through my family foundation in Canada, I also began supporting a wide range of MS initiatives, including the establishment of the Rachel Horne Prize for Women's Research in MS - an international, annual award of US$40,000, which celebrates women scientists making significant contributions to women’s health-related research in MS.
I am co-chair of the Patient and Public Engagement Group – part of the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) Policy Research Unit in Dementia and Neurodegeneration based at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL). Since 2022, I have been an Honorary Research Fellow at QMUL.
I live in London with my husband and we have two adult children. I am currently on Ocrevus, my third disease-modifying therapy to treat my MS.
With 2024 prize winner Professor Kirsten Hellwig
Non-MS philanthropy
Over the years, I have donated to a number of projects which have supported women and girls around the world.
These include regular contributions to Ethiopiaid Canada and their partner AWSAD, a charity which runs safe houses in Ethiopia for survivors of domestic violence and abuse. I also give annually to Friends of Ibba Girls' School, a residential girls' school in Southern Sudan.
At the AWSAD Safe House, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia