A 10 Year Partnership
Manchester University x The Natalie Kate Moss Trust
Words from Professor Stuart Allan, lead of the stroke research group at Manchester University
“The stark reality is that little has changed over the last few decades regarding the impact of brain haemorrhage, in contrast to many conditions.
Within one month only 3 out of 5 patients will survive after intracerebral haemorrhage, with 2 out of 5 patients surviving at 5 years, a statistic that has not changed in 40 years.
In contrast breast cancer survival has doubled in that same period, with four out of five patients surviving at 10 years. We therefore desperately need a breakthrough to improve outcomes after intracerebral haemorrhage.
This is why the generous support of the Natalie Kate Moss Trust and others is so valuable. To find new effective treatments we need to do more research, and we need skilled individuals to perform the work. However, this costs money – which is a constant challenge to obtain. Funding is available from charities like the British Heart Foundation and the government funded Research Councils, but it is a very competitive landscape, so funding is difficult to secure. Success rates can be low, with only one out of six applications funded, even if the work is rated internationally outstanding. The process of grant applications is also very protracted, taking as long as a year from the application stage to receiving funding, if fortunate enough to be successful. Hence, why the financial support from The Natalie Kate Moss Trust is so important.
10 years ago, when The Natalie Kate Moss Trust first approached us, our research group was almost entirely working on stroke caused by a blood clot, with just one PhD student researching brain haemorrhage. However, after meeting with them and hearing their desire to do something positive in memory of Natalie inspired us to put more focus on studying brain haemorrhage and as a result of this focus, increased funding from NKMT has grown YoY, so to have we been able to grow our team, capacity and resources.
One major breakthrough in our research as a result has been from Dr Adrian Parry-Jones, who is a Consultant Vascular Neurologist at Salford Royal and leads several exciting projects on brain haemorrhage. His research has gone from strength to strength, and he is now recognised as one of the top clinical researchers in the field internationally. His recent ground-breaking work has developed a new approach to manage brain haemorrhage patients in hospital, the ABC care bundle. When implemented at Salford Royal the ABC bundle reduced mortality at 1 month by 10%. The ABC bundle is now being tested in hospitals across the North of England. If the results from Salford are replicated it could then become standard treatment across the country for brain haemorrhage which would be a fantastic breakthrough.
The donations made by the Natalie Kate Moss Trust over the last 10 years, have not only allowed us at Manchester University to fund more researchers, increase our capacity, enable more collaboration, but also leverage further funding, ultimately supporting developments in our research.
This is why we launched the Geoffrey Jefferson Brain Research Centre in 2021 – to raise the profile of our research, bring increased funding and attract the brightest talent to Manchester. In doing so we really believe we can provide better outcomes and transform the lives of patients with stroke and other brain conditions.
To finish I would like to express my grateful thanks to the Moss family, on behalf of all the stroke research group at the University of Manchester. It has been a wonderful journey to this stage, working very much in partnership.
I am so excited to be able to continue our journey together with the Natalie Kate Moss Trust and realise our joint ambitions in lessening the impact of brain haemorrhage on people’s lives.“
