Susan Lewis Fellowship
First Memorial Award Granted (2009) - Dr Daniela Avdjieva from Bulgaria - more
The UK Gauchers Association in memory of Susan Lewis, who died in May 2007, has established the Susan Lewis Memorial Award.
The fund was set up to provide grants and bursaries to doctors and other healthcare professionals from developing countries (particularly Eastern Europe) to allow them to travel to the UK Centres of Excellence to undertake mentoring and educational programmes in the treatment and management of Gaucher disease.
As a founder member of both the UK Gauchers Association in 1991 and the European Gaucher Alliance (EGA) in 1994, Susan’s constant focus was to help patients and their families initially by providing valuable information, and, through meetings, conferences and presentations, improving the position of patients on an individual and collective basis.
One of the first things that Susan did was to gather information from all available sources and published a newsletter to disseminate everything that the Association had learned. She knew that the collective knowledge and experience would help patients and it quickly became evident that patients needed access to healthcare professionals experienced in treating Gaucher disease. In the UK, relationships quickly developed with the doctors and their teams who had both an interest in Gaucher disease and had exposure to Gaucher patients.
Inevitably, as more patients came to the Association for advice they were encouraged towards the doctors and healthcare professionals who had such experience, thereby enlarging the pool of patients these doctors were seeing. Susan passionately believed that the establishment of the National Centres for the treatment of Gaucher disease was essential in ensuring patients were provided with the very best advice and treatment.
Through the establishment of national patient associations, contacts with other patient groups and the EGA, and through the Internet and newsletters, patients all over the world now have access to a considerable amount of information about Gaucher disease.
However, what patients in some parts of the world are not able to enjoy is access to expert doctors experienced in diagnosing, managing and treating their disease. Through the Susan Lewis Memorial Fund the Association hopes to address, in Susan’s name, this lack of expertise where there are few Gaucher patients and where treatment is, or (until recently) has not been available. In the name of Susan Lewis we want to help doctors and their teams with little experience in treating Gaucher disease achieve the high levels of expertise available to patients who are regularly seen in the long established centres.
What will the Fund cover?
Grants will cover travel costs, accommodation and will provide a small daily subsistence allowance.
What will the Fund cover and what is expected of the applicant?
The programmes will be individually tailored to take into account the applicants experience and special areas of Gaucher interest. Successful applicants will be expected to write up the experience gained and on return to their countries to work with and assist others in gaining experience of Gaucher Disease.
Who can apply?
Healthcare professionals from Eastern Europe are a priority for this fund, however applications from other developing countries will be considered. It is essential that all applicants are currently involved in the field of Gaucher disease or other Lysosomal Storage diseases.
Applicants must be able to read, speak and understand English to a high level and be willing to spend up to six weeks in the UK on the programme.
How to apply?
Interested persons should complete an application form which is available in hard or electronic form from the Gauchers Association Tel; 00 44 1453 549231 or by e-mail: ga@gaucher.org.uk
If you have any queries or would like to discuss this fund further, please contact Tanya Collin-Histed, Executive Director on: 00 44 1453 549231 or e-mail; ga@gaucher.org.uk