Scotland, where Rowling lives, has the highest prevalence of MS in the world. She has used her fame to be a strong voice for the MS cause in the United Kingdom. As a Patron of the MS Society Scotland, she is involved with fundraising efforts for research. In 2006, through a major gift, Rowling helped establish a new Multiple Sclerosis Research Centre at the University of Edinburgh.
In addition to supporting research, Rowling has a profound interest in promoting better care and services for people with MS based on her mother’s experience with lack of services. In 2003, she helped campaign for a national standard of care for MS in the UK. Through her support of the Society, the number of MS specialists in nursing and occupational and physical therapy has increased in Scotland in recent years.
In the foreword for Principles to Promote Quality of Life for People with MS, developed by the Multiple Sclerosis International Federation (MSIF) to promote better care and services for people with MS worldwide, she wrote, “It was not only the rapid progression of the illness that affected my mother and us, her family. It was the rapid deterioration of the quality of her life, her self-esteem, her independence…… Quality of life is something we must all fight for in every country around the world….”
She regularly speaks out on public policy issues affecting people with MS in Scotland. In February 2007, after the Scottish Medicines Consortium advised against the use of Tysabri on economic grounds, Rowling protested: “If a drug can help tackle MS particularly the very aggressive type of relapsing MS we are talking about it should not be ruled out because of cost alone.”
Rowling wrote about her mother in 2001 for the MS Society Scotland.
Her story was reprinted with permission in the Summer 2002 issue of InsideMS.
- Read “I Miss My Mother So Much” by J.K. Rowling