
It seems like word is getting out! BBC London 94.9, a local station with a fair old reach, has been in touch and featured Charlotte's Helix on today's Breakfast show. Paul Ross, manfully holding the fort all on his tod, took in some company from Erica @HelixAN25, the wonderful Professor Janet Treasure (OBE) from @KingsIoP, and from our very first DNA donor, Miranda @mirandasmurmurs, in attempt to try and cover all the bases of Charlotte's Helix, and anorexia, and #AN25K in a matter of minutes - not an easy task, but we gave it our best shot!
Paul shared with us his own family experience, a niece, thankfully recovering well, in amongst a large family for whom, whatever the genetic vulnerabilities, the development of an eating disorder is by no means a certainty. Families like Paul's will be amongst those who may benefit in years to come from the kind of genetic research in which #AN25K is involved, and as increase in the scientific knowledge points the way to new treatments and enables possibilities for prevention to be explored for those whose genes may create vulnerability.
Fast and furious, as is the nature of a magazine programme, we hope we got our messages through clean and clear. The genetic link is not simple; there is no single "anorexia gene" (there will be lots of them!); environment matters; sample size matters (and Janet, I note, has upped the ante a little on our UK numbers, let's see what we can do, together, to achieve them - but let's also remember that 1,000 samples and £100,000 to pay for them will make Charlotte's Helix an unqualified success!); the evidence for genetic connection is getting stronger every day; having an eating disorder is not a choice nor a matter for shame, it is, however, serious and deserves better understanding to enable better treatment and cure - lives are lost to eating disorders and that is why this research is so important.
Thank you: to Paul and to Maxie and to Sarah and to all @BBCLondon949 Breakfast crew for talking to us; to Prof Treasure and Miranda for talking with us, and to everyone involved for helping to spread the word and the work of Charlotte and her Helix!
Link to today's BBC London 94.9 Breakfast show: "Paul Ross Flies Solo" here:
Erica (00:22:15 - 00:26:05) | Prof Treasure (01:22:00 - 01:25:05) | Miranda (02:21:10 - 02:26:10)
Post Script:
BBC London 949 just couldn't get enough of us! @VanessaOnAir was in touch following our introduction to the Helix earlier in the day, to ask us to talk some more, and so Sue @Shepherd2210, for Charlotte's Helix, and Amber, a donor to our biobank, and Dr @psychgenomics Breen, for KCL, went on air to talk to @nikkibedi.
You can listen again to these conversations in the last half hour of the show here [from 02:30:00 - 02:41:10 (Sue and Amber) and from 02:49:30 - 02:53:00 (Dr Gerome Breen)].
Paul shared with us his own family experience, a niece, thankfully recovering well, in amongst a large family for whom, whatever the genetic vulnerabilities, the development of an eating disorder is by no means a certainty. Families like Paul's will be amongst those who may benefit in years to come from the kind of genetic research in which #AN25K is involved, and as increase in the scientific knowledge points the way to new treatments and enables possibilities for prevention to be explored for those whose genes may create vulnerability.
Fast and furious, as is the nature of a magazine programme, we hope we got our messages through clean and clear. The genetic link is not simple; there is no single "anorexia gene" (there will be lots of them!); environment matters; sample size matters (and Janet, I note, has upped the ante a little on our UK numbers, let's see what we can do, together, to achieve them - but let's also remember that 1,000 samples and £100,000 to pay for them will make Charlotte's Helix an unqualified success!); the evidence for genetic connection is getting stronger every day; having an eating disorder is not a choice nor a matter for shame, it is, however, serious and deserves better understanding to enable better treatment and cure - lives are lost to eating disorders and that is why this research is so important.
Thank you: to Paul and to Maxie and to Sarah and to all @BBCLondon949 Breakfast crew for talking to us; to Prof Treasure and Miranda for talking with us, and to everyone involved for helping to spread the word and the work of Charlotte and her Helix!
Link to today's BBC London 94.9 Breakfast show: "Paul Ross Flies Solo" here:
Erica (00:22:15 - 00:26:05) | Prof Treasure (01:22:00 - 01:25:05) | Miranda (02:21:10 - 02:26:10)
Post Script:
BBC London 949 just couldn't get enough of us! @VanessaOnAir was in touch following our introduction to the Helix earlier in the day, to ask us to talk some more, and so Sue @Shepherd2210, for Charlotte's Helix, and Amber, a donor to our biobank, and Dr @psychgenomics Breen, for KCL, went on air to talk to @nikkibedi.
You can listen again to these conversations in the last half hour of the show here [from 02:30:00 - 02:41:10 (Sue and Amber) and from 02:49:30 - 02:53:00 (Dr Gerome Breen)].