Dr Blau
Prof MacGregor
Migraine Art Competition
Internship
Alexandra Rose Day
Gift Aid
Reseach Studies
Vagotomy and Migraine
Fundraising Run in September
New charity credit card
Aspirin as acute treatment
Menstrual Migraine – new findings
Dr J N Blau 1928 – 2010 It is with great sadness that we announce the death of Dr Nat Blau, who passed away on 26th June 2010 following a long battle with cancer. A co-founder of the Clinic, he worked tirelessly over the last 30 years and will be greatly missed by us all. Please join us in sharing our condolences with his wife, Jill and his children Justin, Adrian, and Rosie.
A full obituary will be placed on the website and will be included in the next newsletter.
Congratulations Professor MacGregor!
We are very thrilled to announce that our Director of Clinical Research has been awarded a personal Chair at the Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry, the University of London.
Migraine Art
As part of our 30th Birthday celebrations we plan to focus on Migraine Art: we intend to hold a completion open to Children, Adults and possibly a special category for Art Students. We plan to invite art works not only illustrating the auras, and pain but also the experience when the migraine has lifted. We will then hold an exhibition of this work where the art works will be sold. We have been trying to gain sponsorship for the event for a considerable period of time. If any of you are aware of any organisations or individual who may be willing to sponsor this event please contact Heather.
Internship – do you know anyone looking to work in the 3rd sector?
If you are a graduate looking for your first job or looking for a change of direction into the charitable sector we have got the opportunities for you to build on your existing skill set and gain new ones.
We are looking for a high calibre individual, who would really value and make the most of the opportunity to work for a supportive organisation where their ideas, energy and enthusiasm would be valued. The role would be extremely varied ranging from fundraising & education events administration, to clinic administration and give plenty of opportunities for innovation. You must be IT literate, enjoy writing, hardworking, committed and enthusiastic.
You will receive an interesting mixture of experiences that would provide grounding for future roles in fundraising, educational event management, charity administration, and clinic administration.
This is a voluntary position; we pay a basic allowance to cover travel & any agreed out-of-pocket expenses.
If you are interested please email a copy of your CV together with a covering letter to heather.sim@migraineclinic.org.uk. IF you have any queries please contact Nanna Sandberg on 00 7251 3322.
Alexandra Rose Day – a big thanks to our volunteers on the day
We would like to send out a big thank you to the volunteers who took
collections tins around the City on Alexandra Rose Day
the 17th June. Our long-time supporters Mary,
Brendan and Jill were joined by Giovanna and Daniel.
Together they raised over £300!
For more information on Alexandra Rose Day please look here.
Gift Aid – The silver lining of the new 50% tax rate – Gift Aid and the new tax bracket
The new 50% tax band that came into effect on 6th April this year could be used to increase the value of your charitable donations.
Under the Government’s Gift Aid scheme, the Clinic can reclaim tax on the donations made by UK taxpayers. We, as a charity can claim the basic rate tax directly from HM Revenue & Customs. For individuals paying a higher rate of tax, the difference between the higher rate and the basic rate can be reclaimed by the individual or donated to charity.
This means that anyone who is in a higher tax bracket can either increase the amount of their donation significantly or reduce the cost of making charitable donations.
As an example a £100 donation from an individual paying basic rate income tax would become £125 including Gift Aid. From a person paying the 40% tax rate the total potential donation would be £160 if all the reclaimed tax was given to the charity.
With the new 50% tax rate the total potential donation from the starting £100 would be £176!
This new tax rate applies to people earning more than £150,000 per year and it has been estimated this will apply to more than 350,000 people in the UK. If you think reclaiming the higher rate tax seems too much of a hassle – please consider payroll giving. In practice this means all of these calculations are taken care of automatically through your payroll, minimizing the effort needed.
For more information please have a look at the HMRC website.
Research Studies
• A new drug trial for menstrual migraine has just started. This six month study involves takingprevention medication at the prone time and coming to see us each month after you have treated to give us a blood sample. You can continue your usual medication.
• We are also still looking for women who have migraine with their periods to come to the clinic to provide a saliva sample for genetic analysis. If you are coming to the Clinic, you may be asked at your visit if you would like to help.
• Women needed who do NOT have migraine! Do you know anyone who does not have migraine, is female and would be willing to make 1 or 2 visits to the Clinic to participate in the genetics study? If you work in London Alison would also be willing to visit your office to collect the saliva samples from willing volunteers.
• Gentlemen. We need you for research too! Please register you interest with Alison. We hope to tell you about our new migraine treatment study due to start at the end of the year, in the next newsletter. If your wife or female partner is lucky enough not to have migraine and would like to help with our genetics study, we would be delighted to hear from her.
Please contact our Research Sister Alison Frith to find out more or just register your interest in our projects. We need your help. There’s never any obligation to participate and we can reimburse your travel expenses. Email research@migraineclinic.org.uk
Does Vagotomy affect Migraine?
We are currently studying the effect of vagotomy on migraine. This operation to cut the vagus nerve was a treatment for stomach ulcers, although it is not common now. If you or anyone you know with migraine has had a vagotomy, we would be very interested to hear about the effect, if any, that the operation had on your migraine.
Please respond to research@migraineclinic.org.uk to let us know of your experience.
Fundraising – Would you like to begin the road to improving your fitness?
A few friends and staff from the Clinic are planning to take part in the 2010 adidas Women’s 5K Challenge in Hyde Park on Sunday 5th September 2010. The entrance fee is £15, the clinic will receive £5 of this. If you wish to get your friends and family to sponsor you and raise even more money for the clinic (thank you in advance!) please use Virgin Money website to set up a site. This is very useful as it takes the pain out of collecting the money and you can email the link to all your contacts! We can provide sponsorship forms if you wish.
If you are not sure that you are up to running 5k please do not worry, you can walk the race if you wish and children can accompany you. For some it may be the first of many fun runs! We look forward to meeting some of you on the 5th September. To register please follow this link and don’t forget to enter The City of London Migraine Clinic as your charity. Please contact Nanna if you have any questions.
Virgin Money Charity credit card
A new credit card available from Virgin Money allows you to donate up to 1.02% of all your card purchases to charity. Where most such credit cards are linked to a specific cause/charity, this card allows you to choose between all charities registered with Virgin Money Giving – which includes us. The money that you can choose to donate consists of 0.8% cash back which become just over 1% once gift aid is added (provided you are eligible for gift aid).
Before signing up to any credit agreement please ensure you are familiar with and understand the terms and conditions that apply.
News – Aspirin as Acute Treatment
Many of you may have read or heard about a study that was published in the middle of April about the efficacy of using aspirin to treat migraine attacks. We posted links on Facebook and Twitter for those of you who follow us there. This study was what is generally called a meta-analysis – meaning that it was a study of previously conducted studies. This gives more of an overview of all the research done on a specific topic, but can be more difficult to analyse as each study is done differently to the next – making the results hard to compare.
What the study suggests is that in 25% of cases aspirin will leave the person pain free within 2 hours. For half of people it will reduce the severity of the symptoms to mild in the same time. It was suggested that high dose aspirin (900g) in combination with metoclopromide is especially effective against migraine attacks. This combination is already recommended as an acute treatment by the British Association for the Study of Headaches (BASH) and is regularly recommended by the doctors at the Clinic.
As always it is important to discuss changes in the medication you use with your GP or another doctor to ensure this option is appropriate for you.
Menstrual Migraine
Published on 17th April, in the most recent edition of the journal Headache, our Medical Research Director Dr Anne MacGregor was the co-author of an article titled “Characteristics of Menstrual vs Nonmenstrual Migraine ”. The article discusses the results of a study on the differences between menstrual and nonmenstrual migraine attacks, making comparisons both between women and between the two kinds of attacks for the same women. The results indicated that menstrual migraine attacks were more severe, lasted longer and were more prone to relapse compared with nonmenstrual attacks. Most of the difference could also be seen in those women who got both menstrual and nonmenstrual attacks – suggesting that the difference lay in the type of migraine attack rather than differences between the women who have menstrual migraine and those who have nonmenstrual migraine.
This suggests a need to further study menstrual migraine in its own right as it can differ from nonmenstrual migraine. Maybe our current study of the genetics of menstrual migraine may shed some light on it – although this study is still in the early stages and no results are expected for a few years.
Heather Sim
Chief Executive
