Voiceover:
Welcome to The Raw Nerve, the official podcast of MS Australia, a conversation space for all things multiple sclerosis. Join us for news and views on the latest research, treatments and advocacy efforts, as well as candid and informative interviews with our community, those living with MS and their families and carers together with leading clinicians, researchers, and advocates.
Jeremy Henderson:
Hello, welcome to The Raw Nerve. I’m your host, Jeremy Henderson. Today we’re talking about MS Australia’s renewed, and as of last week, I had just relaunched annual awards program, the MS Australia Awards. And I can’t think of three better and more qualified people to discuss the awards program than today’s three guests. Joining us today, firstly from Hobart in Tasmania, we have Sharlene Brown, an MS Australia board member and chair of the John Studdy Award Selection Committee. Welcome, Sharlene.
Also joining us from Perth in Western Australia, we have MS Australia deputy chair and chair elect, George Pampacos. Welcome, George. In addition to being deputy chair, George is also a previous recipient of the John Studdy Award, which remains today the most prestigious award bestowed by MS Australia.
And in the third chair today, I’m delighted to welcome Rachel Kerr all the way from Rockhampton, Queensland. Rachel is an MS Queensland ambassador, and in fact is our most recent John Studdy award recipient. Rachel received the 2023 John Studdy award in recognition of her commitment, dedication, and service to people living with multiple sclerosis. Rachel, congratulations and thank you for joining us.
Now, our three guests today all have a very personal connection to MS and deep ties to the MS community. So I’m looking forward to talking to you about what drives you and makes you so passionate to give back as we chat today about the MS Australia Awards program. So today we’re going to discuss the new MS Australia Awards program. We’re going to talk about why we’ve expanded the program, why the John Studdy Award still remains the centerpiece, and we’re going to talk about the importance of recognizing the individuals making extraordinary contributions out in the Australian community. Sharlene, by way of introduction and before we do a deep dive into the awards, I wonder whether you’d be happy to tell me about your own personal connection with MS and to the MS community.
Sharlene Brown:
Absolutely. Thanks, Jeremy. Well, let me see. I’m a person living with MS, but more so than that, I have connections, deep connections from the MS Society of Tasmania, probably from primary school days from doing the MS Readathons and I think most primary school children many years ago all took place in seeing how many books we could read to raise money for this disease none of us really knew much about. And also in Hobart, which at the time in Tasmania generally had one of the highest rates in Australia. So little was I to know that the fundraising that I started back in kindergarten from year one onwards would become such a big part of my life.
My personal connection is obviously as somebody who has been living with this or diagnosed for 23 years now, and probably had it a lot longer. It’s been more so part of my life than it has not been. So that’s when I think of it like that and say it out loud, it makes it sound like it’s a huge part of my life, but it is just one part of who I am as an individual. And I’m sure Rachel will probably join in later and agree about that as well. So for me, the connection to MS Australia is very personal. I also have a family member who has it as well. So it’s not just about self and I think that’s a really important part of volunteering for organizations such as MS Australia.
Jeremy Henderson:
Sharlene, I imagine you are very well-connected to the, if we can say the MS community. And not only are you doing amazing work, but you’re also seeing many, many people out there doing a lot of work and so many people that do work and for no sort of acclaim or recognition. Is it personally important for you to see MS Australia have this strong awards program that provides this opportunity to shine a light on people out there in the community?
Sharlene Brown:
Absolutely, and I think too for people who, there are a lot of people who do a lot of work for MS organizations around Australia, and not just in any official capacity, who go under the radar too often. And they really are the backbone of what we do. They are our ambassadors. They’re the people who raise awareness on the street selling raffle tickets. They’re the ones you talk about near the helplines or go to this website to get some guidance. And those are the people that we rely on so incredibly to help with the cause, which is to raise awareness of what we are trying to do here. And also to let other people who may have neurodegenerative diseases know there is a place they can go, that there’s a place where there’s information available. And also the awards are a way of us thanking these people.
And again, we’ve got Rachel and George here is as recipients of it. It is selfless. It is selfless work. Many people will do it for many, many years. I’m relatively new on the scene. So for someone like me and I look at some of the legacies left by some people, much better people who have come along before me who have set these organizations up. They’re the ones who have actually started this. And I, and probably Rachel as well, have been direct recipients of the work they’ve done. And I’ll go into that later or talking about the difference that medication and research makes to the lives of people living with it. But it’s understated, to say the least. So an award such as this is a really, really small thank you, but we try and make it a big deal because these people are the backbone of what we do. So it’s more than important. It’s such a significant part of our calendar.
Jeremy Henderson:
Thanks, Sharlene. I wonder if you can talk about the new MS Australia Awards. And I mean, a big part of that is an expansion of the awards, which actually allows us to recognize more people. I wonder if you can talk to me a little bit about what we’re doing.
Sharlene Brown:
Yeah, and the revitalization of the awards was seen and we looked at this last year because we had so many people being awarded for different types of areas. So you’re going to have your researchers who, and people may say to us, “Yeah, but that’s their job.” It’s not just their job. You need to have a reason to get out of bed in the morning. I don’t care if you’re being paid for it or not. There has to be a real commitment to the core. So a lot of these researchers, again, we are direct beneficiaries of what they’re doing. They’re incredible. So why not thank them for their time and their commitment? A lot of researchers that we look at will be looking at contracts so they’re only on tenure periods for two to three years or a bit longer if they’re really lucky. There’s a certain level of commitment that takes a researcher from those contracts to stick the course so that you’ve got translational research and translational medications down the line.
And again, direct recipient right here. We also wanted to add the two new categories to the awards obviously, because everyone who’s put up or nominated for these awards, they’re all exemplary in their own way. And it’s very hard for us to say, well, why should a researcher get this when you’ve got somebody exactly like Rachel Kerr, a single volunteer, who does such fantastic work. And again, it’s voluntary, so why not take the time to actually enhance the public awareness of what we’ll do and also for these people who are giving up their own time to bring so much publicity to the cause? So that’s why we have started to revitalize and roll out this new awards program. It’s very exciting.
Jeremy Henderson:
Thanks, Sharlene. So Sharlene, some things have stayed the same. We’re maintaining our connection to the late John Studdy, and we’re maintaining the John Studdy Award as the most prestigious, indeed the centerpiece of the MS Australia Awards. I wonder if you can just speak in your capacity as chair of the John Studdy award selection committee. I wonder if you could tell us a little bit about the late John Studdy and why this award is so significant and that legacy piece is so important to us as an organisation.
Sharlene Brown:
Absolutely. He was a bit of a remarkable researcher in his own right. So he was seen as almost a pinnacle of research in MS medications and investigations some time ago. And having his name there is something we want to keep. So that was really important, I think, to the group that we maintained that. Not just for him, but for his legacy generally. And if you haven’t looked at what the criteria for the award is, and hopefully I can articulate this properly because I do get a bit mumbly. But it’s for outstanding, consistent, and selfless, it’s that selflessness, again, meritorious service of tenable years by someone making or who has made a tangible difference in the benefit of people living with MS and all their families or carers.
So the nominees for these awards can be put forward by any of the member organizations, state or territory obviously, and there’s no real cut and shut rule as to who can put it forward. So we welcome and really encourage people to tell us who’s doing a great thing in the community. There are people who we may not hear about until somebody puts their name forward and they’re the ones that we really want to say, “We are so great can see your efforts and for your energy and for your commitment to things.” So we need a way of actually calling them out and this is just part of that, Jeremy. It’s one way that we can say thank you.
Jeremy Henderson:
Sharlene, thank you. So that’s excellent and exciting. So the two additional awards, the expansion of the awards now takes in as well as the John Studdy Award, We have the MS Researcher of the Year award, which recognizes exceptional contributions to MS research. And then we have the MS Advocate of the Year award that honors people within the MS community who’ve passionately advocated for raising awareness about MS or championing the cause of those living with MS. And the important distinction with these two awards is of course, that these are now open to the public, so the public can nominate. You can go onto the MS Australia website today if you know of an outstanding individual in either that MS researcher or that MS advocate category. You can go to the MS Australia website, msaustralia.org.au/awards, and make that nomination, which is really exciting.
Sharlene Brown:
It is exciting.
Jeremy Henderson:
George. It is, thank you. George, turning to you, I wonder whether, firstly you can tell me a little bit about your personal connection with MS.
George Pampacos:
Back in that 1988, I think with a MS Reradathon. And then 12 months later, a little bit longer, then my mum got diagnosed. I was in my mid-teens and she was unfortunately diagnosed with MS. And at the time she probably used stereotypical diagnosis. She had three kids. She was probably mid-forties, or sorry, late thirties. She’ll kill me. I said mid-forties, but late thirties. And she was diagnosed with MS. And I’ve just seen the impact that that has had on my mum’s life, especially the last 20 years, that I really wanted to give back and make sure that we can eradicate this illness and to make people living with MS lives a lot easier from a day-to-day basis. Not necessarily from a physical point of view, but also just a social point of view as well. And then in the early 2000s, one of my close friends from school, we were about, I should know this, 25, 26, are diagnosed with MS as well. So yeah, so that’s my background.
Jeremy Henderson:
George, in your role as deputy chair, I know that you come across so many volunteers, advocates, carers, clinicians, MS nurses, researchers, people living with MS. How important is it that that whole range of people in the MS community have that opportunity to be recognized and acknowledged and appreciated? Why is that so important?
George Pampacos:
I think they do all the heavy lifting, Jeremy. I think when I won in 2021, I was really humbled by it because what I think that I contribute doesn’t feel like a chore or anything at all. I actually love doing it. I feel like I’ll get more than what I actually give. But I think there’s people who are at the coal face who are helping people live with MS on a day-to-day basis. People who are advocating and are outspoken about helping people live with MS, advocating for us, and of course the researchers who just give us hope. And I think, as they say in the Shawshank, ”with out hope, we don’t have much at all.” So I think they are our unsung heroes and they impact, on a daily basis, people living with MS and other neurological conditions. So it’s great. We need to be singing their praises.
Jeremy Henderson:
So George, you’re being very humble. What did it mean to you to be recognized and to receive the John Studdy Award?
George Pampacos:
It was a very proud moment because I actually thought I hadn’t done that much to MS to be honest. So to actually receive the award, I was very taken aback. And I think also being able to show or to do it for my mum and my friend, I think was really important to me. So it was one of my most humble experiences.
Jeremy Henderson:
Thanks, George. Rachel, you’re our current John Studdy award winner. As I mentioned in the opening, you were the 2023 recipient. So congratulations again on your award. You live with MS. I wonder if you can tell us how it felt to win the John Studdy Award and sort of what difference or what impact that might’ve made on your life in Rockhampton Queensland and how you go about the advocacy work that you do.
Rachel Kerr:
Thank you for the congratulations. I appreciate it. The same as I guess what George said. I look at that list of the previous winners of the John Studdy Award, certainly George included, and those are absolute rock stars in my world. It’s my little, I’m fangirling of all of these people. So when Shaun called me, I was very surprised. So I do a lot of advocating and talking to people, so speechless isn’t a regular feeling for me. But no, I was really speechless at the whole thing and I immediately spoke to one of my MS Queensland contacts shortly afterwards just to make sure that they hadn’t actually made a mistake and got the wrong person, because I’ve gone, “Mate, I don’t know what you’re talking about. There’s my little name over here, and then there’s this list of researchers and advocates and people doing amazing stuff.” And so she laughed at me and told, “No, I have got the right person. It’s okay.”
But I’ve obviously known about the award for a little while now and I don’t think it’s actually sunk in yet. George, I get quite embarrassed talking about it because I just don’t feel like I’ve done enough to tick the boxes compared to the people in its names. I sound like I’m very grateful or very humbled, but it just, I think part of this space when we’re working and we’re so close to the MS space and wanting to make that world better, I don’t think any of us will ever feel like our job is finished.
And I, the best I can figure out as to why I can’t feel like I necessarily fit in that list is that if none of us feel like our job is ever going to be finished, we’re never going to wake up one day and go, “Cool, I’ve done enough to make the lives of people living with MS better,” then maybe that’s why we don’t feel like we belong up there. But look, that’s the best I can think of. So an amazing honor, still a massive surprise so many months on after a lovely presentation and all of those things, but beyond, I think it will still be a surprise. I think you could ask me that question in 10 years and it would still be quite a surprise to me.
Jeremy Henderson:
Lovely. I’ve got some notes here and it talks about your many different hats that you wear and your different roles, Rachel. You’re an advocate for MS, you’re an ambassador for one of our member organizations, MS Queensland. You’re a fundraiser, a keynote speaker, a volunteer, a busy mom. I’m getting tired just reading the list. So my question I guess has to be, what drives you? What motivates you? And obviously you’re motivated by your passion and you’re somebody living with MS and very passionate about the cause, but I guess that drive and that energy, where do you find that from?
Rachel Kerr:
Some days I’m not actually sure, but look, I was diagnosed when I was 17, so I went completely blind. I was doing my final exams at high school and there wasn’t a lot around at that time. We’re talking about 2006. So from my perspective as a 17-year-old or fresh 17-year-old, barely 17-year-old, the image of MS was around that really old person’s disease. Or what I could find on it was that really old person’s disease and not a positive prognosis at all. So after quite some time of coming to terms with what MS looked like, I think I was about 21. And with the energy that 21 year olds have, and I have the optimism that 21 year olds have, and first step was that I decided I wanted to change that image. So when someone was newly diagnosed who was my age, I didn’t want them looking and only seeing real horror stories and seeing only old people who ended up with age mobility issues.
So look, it started from there. In terms of the flow on effect, look, I have, like I said before, I don’t think any of us will ever feel like we’re done. And the more time we spend in this space, the more gaps we see and the more things that we see need to happen and could be better. And look, so my passion now has sort of developed and evolved along the way and it’s I guess between that awareness and also I take a lot of care in getting our newly diagnosed people as they come through and giving them that contact point, especially in a regional area. We don’t necessarily have all of the in-person supports in play. So I guess giving them that reference point and that touch point where it’s not just all doom and gloom. So in short, that’s probably the motivational side.
Sharlene Brown:
And this is why I say you were the perfect person to be chosen, Rachel, because the way you just explained that it was all about, it’s not about me, it’s selfless. You’re giving back. And humility is great, but you need to really own this. You’ve done so many wonderful things. And each time you reach out to a newly diagnosed person, you’re literally giving them a hand. And people need that. And regional Queensland and then other regional areas around Australia, they don’t have the same services. So sometimes it’s an email or a message on Facebook or just a text message to say, “Hey, it’s going to be okay. This is what you can do.” So never underestimate the power of your singular message to someone and the absolute ripple effect that has on other people. So yeah, we’re so very grateful to have you on board. So thank you for everything you’ve done.
George Pampacos:
I think, Jeremy, from memory, when we were voting last year, Sharlene, we had to double check Rachel’s age because we thought she couldn’t do that much in the space of 17 years.
Sharlene Brown:
Yeah.
George Pampacos:
So I think it was ‘how is that possible!’
Sharlene Brown:
Yeah, exactly. Well, and 17 too, 17, it’s quite a young age to be diagnosed with something that in some people’s lives could be really significant in terms of health outcomes. And to continue to do your education, to be a teenager, to do all the normal teenage things. I mean, that’s a tremendous burden for someone of that age to actually have on their shoulders. So how did you deal with that?
Rachel Kerr:
It was incredibly difficult. That was a really rough couple of years there. So my now husband and I were dating at the time and I think he wore a lot of the brunt of those, figuring out things along the way. He still does, honestly. He’s my first sounding board for all of our events and when I’ve got things going on or problems, my setup in here today, he’s brought in a little table. We’re in the middle of renovations, so he got the kids from school and he’s brought in a table and set up.
Anyway, so he does a fantastic job being that support I guess as well. But there was definitely a really rough couple of years there, and I don’t actually know what it was that made me decide to snap out of it. I think it was just staring down the barrel of a hopefully quite long life and realizing that sitting there and I guess wallowing in wasn’t the way to go and trying to find a way forward. I’m more of a doer than a thinker, which is not always a good thing. But in that space, I decided, “Look, if I’m going to feel terrible anyway, I might as well feel terrible and do something rather than…” So yeah, as I said though, a lot of that was the energy of a teenager and early 20s-year-old. I don’t know that I would have the same drive. I like to think that I would have the same drive today, but I do not know whether or not I would.
Sharlene Brown:
I don’t know. What, of your last two years of life, you managed to turn around and divert your energy into something incredibly positive. So I think maybe it’s always been there, Rachel. So well done to you. Thank you for sharing your story anyway.
Jeremy Henderson:
I’ve got a question for the three of you, and maybe start with George. So the two new awards aimed to spotlight the remarkable contributions of individuals making significant impacts in the areas of research and advocacy for the MS community. So I wonder if I can ask you in turn, the three of you, how significant do you think research and advocacy is for you personally, but also for the wider MS community?
George Pampacos:
There are two pillars. Actually our main pillars. I think research gives us that hope. It’s our utopia, it’s our goal of either finding a cure or making people living with MS lives just a little bit easier. I think that hope element of research, and we are really at an amazing stage of our research speaking to the MSA researchers like Julia, et cetera. They’re so excited for the next 10 years with the drugs and the platypus project, et cetera.
So research is crucial, especially for those newly diagnosed. It gives us that hope. And the advocacy, as I mentioned earlier, they are the people at the coal face and I think they express immediately or straight away the difficulties people live with MS do have and all the injustices sometimes people live with MS do have as well. And they give us constant feedback so we can pass it on to the government or whatever other body we need to, again, making those people’s lives living with MS just a little bit easier on a day-to-day instance sort of way instead of waiting for the research, which is probably a few years away. And these volunteers who do in particular these services, the caring and the advocacy, are so crucial to us. They’re the people, as I said, at the coal face for us.
Jeremy Henderson:
Sharlene, I can see you and Rachel both nodding in agreement. And you…
Sharlene Brown:
Researcher, oh my goodness. Okay. 23 years ago when I was diagnosed, it started off on one of the very early medications and it made me feel like I had to flu all the time. I was working at a top-tier organization at the time, very busy hours. I think I went back to work the next day because my mind was so set on the billable hour and continuing with my career. That was where my head was. But I was told that I probably had a good decade only of working life. So I was like, but it’s going to take me longer to pay my HECS bill. I won’t be ready by then. So I went from… and these are the real, and Rachel probably understands too, these are the real things. ‘How much time do I have to fit everything in that I want?’ Because I’m a bit impatient.
So in that respect, I went from Betaferon to another one, and then now I’m on a drug I take every six months. And here I am 23 years later and working full time. If you’d said that to me that many years ago, I would’ve said, “Don’t play games with me. You can’t tease me like this.” So this is why researchers are so incredibly important to us. And then we are looking at advocacy as well. Advocacy and research have to work hand in hand because without them, you’re not going to have a lot of luck with the research as well. Advocacy is, I mean, my day-to-day job is I’m a problem solver. But part of that is also being an advocate.
So advocacy is making sure that we are able to, if we are well enough to bring attention to those people who can’t advocate for themselves, and or if they can, who aren’t quite sure how to go about it. Advocacy for MSA is to make sure we have the greatest saturation of our message where we can, because we have a lot to offer. We work hand in hand with our researchers. It’s an incredible synergy that we have. So to be able to continue to work and to support and to award researchers and advocates together, it’s this incredible merging of two different types of people that we just need to take the time out to thank of what they do. So yeah, I can keep talking about that, but Rachel needs to jump in because I’ll keep going.
Jeremy Henderson:
So Rachel, I know how you’re going to answer this. You’re an incredible advocate. So I know that you’re going to be on team advocacy.
Rachel Kerr:
No, look, so when… I had a really similar start as Sharlene. So when I was first diagnosed, one of the first things that they said to me while I was still completely blind at said 17, and I was really stuck on the fact that I was meant to be doing my final exams, trying to switch your brain from like, “No, no, I can’t be blind and I can’t deal with this now because I’ve got to get back to Rocky and I’ve got to do…” Yeah, exactly. Just going, “No, you can’t.” I’ve gone, “No, these are really important because they’re grade 12 exams.” Anyway, so the doctor told me, I don’t even know what doctor it was at that stage, she told me to not plan too much because I had potentially 10 good years, beyond that was almost certainly terrible. But within 10 years, I wouldn’t be able to walk. I wouldn’t be able to feed myself.
So that real doom and gloom, horrendous, really ridiculous message that we would never give anyone now. And I do love that we’ve moved from that point. And then also I started on Betaferon exactly the same. So I learned to inject myself. You get all sorts of really funny looks, a 17-year-old with a car full of sharp kits because you’re taking it to exchange. No one thinks medical condition. So not having to have a needle every second day was a pipe dream and it was so far away. It was not going to be possible to have treatment without needles. It was too hard. We couldn’t get through the stomach without killing the stomach to then still be able to get through blood brain barrier. And then we look at what research has done in such a short time, it’s just phenomenal.
The reason that I’m so fond though of recognizing people in that research and advocacy space though, is pairing those two things together. We are literally painting our future. If we do those two things well now, we are giving ourselves a better future. But I’ll say, I’ve got two kids, so throwing the genetic lottery with them as to whether or not they have an increased risk of MS. I would really like, should they or anyone else get diagnosed with MS in future, I would like to be an inconvenience, just a little bit of an annoyance for that day. But that’s cool. We’ve got treatments or the holy grail of cure. And my goodness, in the time even that I’ve been in that space, seeing the changes, getting us closer to that where that is something that, yes, we’ve always hoped for it, but it is genuinely possible now from where we came from. I’m excited to see what both of those spaces do next.
George Pampacos:
I think Rachel’s done that really well, the advocacy piece, is that there’s probably dozens of people out there who’ve dedicated their life to helping people with MS. Not just from a research point of view, but also the advocacy point of view. And it’s great that we’re able to recognize them. And that’s the main purpose of the change. These mums and dads, they help people live with MS on a day-to-day basis, get no accolades. So one, the accolades, but it’s good to be able to recognize at least someone each year.
Jeremy Henderson:
George, you’ve, I think you’ve answered the last question that I was going to ask the panel, which was to-
George Pampacos:
Really?
Jeremy Henderson:
No, I wanted to-
Sharlene Brown:
Always ahead of himself.
Jeremy Henderson:
He is. I wanted to ask you why should people take the time to nominate someone for these new awards? Why should they actually do that? Shine a light on these people out there in the community doing worthy things.
George Pampacos:
I think they’re punch above their weight. They get so much done for people living with MS. And it’s just a nice small way of saying thank you. Thank you for 10 years, five years, 50 years of dedication to the cause. And for once in their life, their name is up in lights. Maybe not for once, but they get acknowledged for their hard work because most of the time they don’t want it for the award or the praise, they just want to help people out. So for them to be recognized, it’s an amazing-
Sharlene Brown:
Funny you say that. I remember awarding one of these a couple of years ago to a gentleman who found it so hard to receive it. He said, “No, no, there’s other people.” And it was such a joy to say, “Well done, you,” because this person had put so much effort and his own time into what he did for MS generally. So that comes back to that selfless meritorious work, doesn’t it? It’s such a huge part of the John Studdy award.
George Pampacos:
I think in particular, Sharlene, if a person isn’t living with MS like myself, I think the people living with MS are the heroes because what they had to go through sometimes on a day-to-day basis far outweighs the work that I’ve done or what I’ve contributed along the way. So that’s why it is very humbling, particularly when you win it and you’re not living with MS because you feel like you’re just contributing to a great cause.
Sharlene Brown:
And because of the very nature of it anyway, you’re going to have some people who live with maybe a clinically isolating symptom or symptoms, and others who were hit really, really hard, who obviously are at the other end of the spectrum. So you never quite know where you’re going to be in that line. So what you’re saying is correct. Some people, I consider myself extremely lucky, and I think I do well. And then some other people are hit much harder and they’re the ones set up to get that. They need to know that everything’s going to help. The fact that we have incubator grants going and we have Dr. Julia Morahan and all the work she does in research is just fabulous. And we’re talking about international-based sharing of knowledge across jurisdictions, which is huge for the MS community to be aware of.
Rachel Kerr:
And look, I found that winning the John Studdy Award also provided a really, I guess, good conversation starter. So obviously, again, in these regional areas, nothing happens on its own. Everything is networks and talking to people and having those because the money’s not there to reinvent the wheel in everybody’s code. So I’ve had some really great conversations with people about either furthering services we have or formalizing services we have. Setting up those neuro partnerships, which has been fantastic, but also getting a couple of messages from people of, “Hey, I’ve seen what you’ve done. How can I get involved?” Which is brilliant, obviously, as well. And seeing those small changes and that progress all adding up into something bigger.
Sharlene Brown:
And it’s volunteers, isn’t it? Majority of people, it’s volunteer work. They’re not getting paid for it. They’re giving up their own time to do it. So it’s a huge way to say thank you so much for your attention to the cause. Great.
Jeremy Henderson:
Excellent. Sharlene, Rachel, George, thank you very much for your time today. A reminder to our listeners, if you know somebody out there who really is doing some incredible work and deserves to be recognized, it couldn’t be easier to make that public nomination for these two new awards, the Researcher of the Year and MS Advocate of the Year. They can be submitted on the MS Australia website. Just simply head to msaustralia.org.au/awards and our nominations are open until 1st of September 2024. Sharlene, Rachel, George, thank you again. You’ve been listening to The Raw Nerve.
Voiceover:
Thanks for listening to The Raw Nerve, the official podcast of MS Australia. To hear more, subscribe to our podcast today at msaustralia.org.au/podcast.
