Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has joined an international network which will create opportunities to improve the care for patients with motor neurone disease throughout Lancashire and south Cumbria.
The Lancashire and South Cumbria MND (Motor Neurone Disease) Care and Research Centre, formerly called the Preston MND Care and Research Centre, is now part of the ENCALS (European Network to Cure ALS) network. This makes Lancashire Teaching Hospitals the seventh MND centre in the UK to be part of ENCALS.
ENCALS is a network of motor neurone diseases (MND) centres in Europe that undertakes various European collaborative projects with the ultimate aim of finding a cure for Motor Neurone Disease (MND), a devastating and incurable neurodegenerative illness that affects the brain and spinal cord.
Suresh Chhetri, Consultant Neurologist at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals, said: “Being an ENCALS centre opens up new opportunities for international collaborations, including research activity and drug trials, which is brilliant.”
“The only way of enhancing care of patients with MND and eventually finding a cure for this cruel disease is though multinational and multidisciplinary collaborative research projects. It is fantastic that our centre is now an ENCALS centre and this allows us to participate in pan-European collaborative projects including research and drug trials. Our centre is proud to play a part in the global fight against MND.”