Did you know? It's Migraine Awareness Week

Volunteers model the new NMC
vests outside the centre's iconic front door

If you suffer from migraine, you are aware of it all the time. But for the rest of you, now might be the time to think about it in Migraine Awareness Week. To mark the week, the fantastic National Migraine Centre (NMC), of which I have the privilege of being Vice Chair, has launched a campaign to enlist sports enthusiasts to raise funds for the centre. To give any volunteers a boost, the centre has commissioned fab vests (see above) that are available and jolly natty they are too. If you are interested in doing a run or cycle or any athletic endeavour to enable advances in your own care or that of someone you know and love, please contact the centre.

Migraine is a very serious and, for some, crippling condition that can strike at any time, put life on hold and leave sufferers cut off and desperate for treatment. The NMC leads the world in the development of treatment for the condition, pioneering ground-breaking research into new techniques such as the centre's Medical Director, Dr Giles Elrington, leading on the use of botox which was recently covered in the national press. I recently participated in a hypnotherapy treatment group at the centre, which I found very useful. Getting to know some of my fellow sufferers during the program really brought it home to me just how hard life can be for those with severe symptoms.

We need people to understand how serious migraines can be and also how varied and life-enhancing breakthroughs in treatment are for some of us, with a desperate need for more research into other forms of the condition. We know a great deal more about migraine than we used to but, like the brain itself, many questions still go unanswered. The NMC is the place where those questions are being asked. Please support us in doing more.

Great news for migraine sufferers

This week I attended the spectacular launch of the National Migraine Centre, of which I have the privilege to be on the board. 

The event, complete with jazz quartet, took place at the very grand Haberdashers' Hall in the City of London close to the Centre, which is in Charterhouse Square, behind St Bartholemew's Hospital. The evening celebrated not only a snazzy rebrand of the City of London Migraine Clinic, the former name for the Centre, but also to publicise new, cutting-edge services available to all migraine sufferes across the country.

Our Medical Director, Dr Giles Elrington, gave a fantastic and highly entertaining presentation on migraine to the gathered audience so even long-term sufferers like me learnt a thing or two. Did you know, for instance, that one in five people in the UK suffer from migraine? Giles outlined causes and some of the most current therapies. He talked about the research that was happening at the Centre including work with botox that can be injected into the head and is proving extremely effective.

The philosophy of the centre is that we "pride ourselves on our philosophy of care, which is based on medical excellence combined with an approach directed towards each patient’s individual needs. Our aim, to improve the lives of people with headaches and migraine, is at the core of everything we do. In turn, how we work is always based on that aim and so the person at the centre of everything that we do is you – the patient."

Giles talked about the many thousands of patients who had been successfully treated and our growing ranks of celebrity migraine suffers like Francis Rossi of Status Quo or the legendary Pam Ayres, as well as our migraine champions, prominent people who, despite suffering migraine, lead successful, productive lives.

During the evening I enjoyed meeting and talking to patients whose lives had been radically improved by coming to the Centre and were pleased to turn out to support this exciting new phase in our development. 

The NMC is a social enterprise that offers world class service by conducting funded research and paid for services that connect migraine sufferers with the best available care. Led by its CEO, Heather Sim, it has become recognised for the quality of its service and innovation and I really do enjoy being part of the board, which is working to do what we can to bring these services to as many folk as possible.

I started to have migraine in my teens and they have been a feature of my life ever since, though I can't say that any treatment I got from GPs over the years was nearly as effective as that which I found at the NMC. It's a visit that can really change your life because not only do they explore treatment with you but they put a great deal of effort into helping you understand what triggers your migraines, providing you with the kind of expert analysis that makes all the difference. 

Finally I dug out this Pam Ayres poem that mentions migraine, which like all her work makes a wonderful read.

Yes I'll Marry You ~ Pam Ayres

Yes, I'll marry you, my dear,
And here's the reason why;
So I can push you out of bed
When the baby starts to cry
And I hear a knocking
And it's creepy and it's late
I hand you the torch you see
And you investigate
Yes I'll marry you my dear
And you may not apprehend it
But when the tumble dryer goes
It's you that has to mend it
You have to face the neighbor
Should our roggie cat attack him
And if a drunkard fondles me
It's you that has to whack him
Yes I'll marry you
You're virile and you're lean
Your house is like a pigsty
I'll help you keep it clean
That sexy little dinner
Which you served by candle night
As I do the chappatis you can cook it every night
It's you who has to work the drill
And put up curtain track
And when I've got a migraine its you who gets the flack
I do see great advantages
But none of them for you
And so before you see the light
I do I do I do I do!