35th International Symposium on ALS/MND

“The Symposium is very powerful and it makes people feel they belong to this specific group of people. It’s a way that you grow as a scientist and you cannot overestimate the contribution this event has made to the science.”

“It’s been really exciting. I’ve enjoyed every moment of it. I would absolutely recommend for other people living with MND to attend. And it doesn’t matter whether you’re a scientist or not, I think you’ll find it an incredibly valuable experience. Whoever you are, you will gain from coming to this symposium because you’ll meet incredible people and you’ll come out of the symposium realising that there are a huge number of people who are pushing really, really hard to find the cures and treatments.”

“[MND research has] gone from a cloud of uncertainty to a sort of roadmap for how we might treat and cure motor neurone disease… I think that’s happened in relatively recent years and you can see that from the meeting. The attendance numbers have gone up and more engagement from the pharmaceutical industry means we have made tremendous progress. I think the International Symposium is really part of the process, it’s the way people come together, and it’s recognised as the premier meeting in the field each year. I’ve been very grateful to be part of that.”

“For me, living in an ALS body that’s increasingly isolated, I start or tend to think of my experience as somehow mine alone. The greatest personal benefit of the Symposium was to remind me of the breadth of research and global nature of what I’m experiencing personally.”