It was a pleasant surprise, when last year I was invited to speak at the Manchester Convention organised by the UK MS Society. It was a good opportunity to showcase MSSI’s work, which created a lot of interest about MS in India and also about MSSI amongst more than 200 delegates. Many of them came forward with lots of questions. The UK MS Society‘s Committee Members indicated their interest in helping MSSI by offering advance training in India.

Accordingly I met a few heads of different departments of UK MS Society in London and we formed a basic format of the project “Visit by UK Expert Team to India to give advance training in Management of MS”. I requested them to visit four chapters of MSSI. They agreed to bear the expenses for their international as well as domestic travel and stay at hotels and also the cost of training material. On behalf of MSSI I agreed to provide the venues, local transport, working lunches, teas etc.

Thus the idea came into reality on 2nd February 2007. The MSSI Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad & Delhi saw a flurry of activities. All the minute details were taken into consideration to welcome Dr Alasdair Coles (consultant neurologist, Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge), Dr Eli Silber (neurologist, King’s College Hospital), Dr Anita Rose (psychologist, The Walton Centre), Mrs Jane Petty (National Leader of Physiotherapy), Mrs Carrie Brown (Lead MS Nurse, Healthcare at Home), Mrs Adrienne Cox (MS Nurse, Sheffield), Mrs Denise Middleton (occupational therapist); Mrs Alison Handford (Research Manager) and Mrs Caron Furnival (Head of Service Development) to India.

In Mumbai, MSSI offered them complimentary transport throughout their stay. On the day of arrival we had arranged half a day sightseeing with a guide from Tourism Dept., which they immensely enjoyed.

On 3rd February, the first workshop, attended by 135 participants, was specially organised for people with MS, families and caregivers. Dr Joy Desai, Consultant Neurologist, Jaslok Hospital, who is actively involved with degenerative brain diseases and runs a special Epilepsy Clinic at Jaslok, chaired the workshop and introduced the team to the audience. The presentations by the UK experts were well received by all present and lot of questions were put up to the team. After the delicious lunch for all present, the workshop ended at 2.30 pm. Then Anju and Ranju, two members of MSSI team, accompanied the visitors for a shopping expedition at the famous Linking Road.

Dr BS Singal, Chairman MSSI Mumbai Chapter and Chief Advisor National Medical Panel and Head of the Neurology, Bombay Hospital, requested Dr Surya, Neurologist and Treasurer of Bombay Neurosciences Association (BNA) to organise the Joint Session of MSSI with BNA which he did by securing full sponsorship from VHB Life Sciences Inc. At this session Dr Alasdair Coles gave a lecture on “Recent advances in the understanding and management of multiple sclerosis” and Dr Anita Rose on “Psychological problems in multiple sclerosis”. This important session was chaired by our most senior and eminent neurologist Dr NH Wadia. The venue, Taj Lands End Hotel was completely packed by over 200 neurologists and other medical professionals.

I also made a presentation on the MSSI work from the inception in 1985 and requested that the audience refer their cases to MSSI for various services, mainly counseling for the newly diagnosed and their families. I was glad that it was well received and I got assurance from the Mumbai medical fraternity and the heads of the several pharma companies that they will work hand in hand with MSSI to improve the quality of lives of people with MS.

After the session, the cocktails and dinner helped for greater interaction between Indian doctors, UK Team & MSSI Mumbai & Pune.

The next day we had a full day session for professionals, where 112 participants from different medical colleges were present. The session was chaired by Dr Satish Khadilkar, Ex-Vice President, MSSI and Ex-Chairman of Mumbai Chapter and neurologist at Bombay Hospital. He is also the Head of Dept of Neurology of Sir. J. J. Hospital and Professor of Grant Medical College. Dr Khadilkar introduced the UK Team. Then Dr Alasdair Coles explained about MS in an extremely interesting presentation and involved all the professionals in the lively discussion.

The second session after lunch was chaired by Dr Rekha Bhatkhande, Gastroenterologist and the head of the MSSI pilot project “Improvement of Quality of Life of MS Patients”. Dr Rekha presented her project to the audience in which she has documented her findings by treating 20 people with MS for one year by giving them particular diet, exercises and proper counseling thus helping them with the better management of MS. Then the UK team continued their presentations.

A Q&A session followed and ended with the Chair requesting each member of the team to highlight one key message which was important and relevant to MS in India. They liked this interesting opportunity. One of the main themes which arose was that people, both healthcare professionals and people affected by MS, should work in partnership with the MSSI. Thus the whole day was educative for nurses, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, counselors and young doctors. At the end every participant received a special certificate signed by Dr BS Singal, Chairman, MSSI, Mumbai Chapter and Chief Advisor National Medical Panel, MSSI, along with Dr Alasdair Coles. The venue for both the days was Holy Family Hospital, Bandra, which is fully equipped for such programmes. The programme was partially sponsored by Nicholas Piramal, Merck and Novartis companies.

On 5th February I left for Bangalore along with the UK team. Fortunately we reached our respected hotels but then due to the Cauvery River Verdict the political atmosphere in Bangalore became tense. None of us could venture out. Fortunately this agitation was postponed by a week since there was a very interesting International Air Show starting from 6th of February. The next morning the visitors went on a sightseeing tour.

The workshop at Ashirwada started at 10 am with a presentation on the work of Bangalore Chapter done by Mrs Lalitha, Member of the Committee. On behalf of Bangalore Chapter, Mr KA Prasad, Hon. Treasurer and Vice President garlanded the team members with beautiful sandalwood malas. They were very happy to receive this extraordinary fragrant welcome. The session was chaired by Mr JL Pasricha, our past President and had a good number of participants. This was joint training for both healthcare professionals and people affected by MS.

In the evening Hon. Secretary Mrs Kala hosted a dinner for the MSSI members and UK delegates at a very pleasant country club. Everyone interacted at the dinner and lots of photographs were clicked.

On 8th Feb we reached Hyderabad where Dr Eli Silber joined the team for the last week's training. They went for sightseeing in the morning and in the evening MSSI Hyderabad had organised their workshop which was attended by a large group of over 200 student nurses. On the request from the Hyderabad Chapter, the team especially stressed the advantages of home nursing, a concept not easily accepted by nurses in Hyderabad and I hope it was well received by the trainees.

On 9th February the Hyderabad chapter helped in arranging the sightseeing for the UK team which included a visit to Ramoji Film City and Golkonda Fort along with light and sound show at the fort. They had already seen the famous Salarjung Museum on their arrival.

The morning session the next day was for healthcare professionals and around 120 people attended. Eli gave his first talk of the tour, which went really well and Jane gave a very lively presentation on seating and stretching.

After lunch, they were taken to a local government hospital where around 60 members including 17 people with MS had gathered for interaction with UK team. Local neurologist Dr Meena also joined the session and translated some of the questions for the delegates. In all, the interaction was very successful.

The evening session started at 7 pm at the Taj Hotel for the neurologists. On behalf of UK MS Society, Caron welcomed all and thanked the Hyderabad chapter for their very warm welcome. Meena Gupta, Chairperson, Hyderabad Chapter, spoke about their activities. Dr Silber gave a lecture summarising recent developments in MS and future potential therapies. This was followed by dinner arranged by Hyderabad Chapter.

On 11th February we left for Delhi and a day of sight seeing and shopping. In the evening there was a session arranged by the Delhi Chapter where Dr Eli Silber spoke about the pathology of MS and treatments. Dr Madhuri Behari, Professor and Head of Neurology at the All India Institute of Medical Science, New Delhi, then spoke about the prevalence of MS in ethnic communities and the different presentations of MS that have been documented. Dr Mendiratta, Professor of Neurology at GB Pant Hospital in Delhi, spoke about treatments in MS and the day ended with dinner from Delhi Chapter. The next day the team went to Agra to see the Taj Mahal which they enjoyed a lot.

The Delhi Chapter organised a two day session for people with MS, families and professionals. Meenakshi Bhujwala, Hon. Treasurer made a presentation about work of the Delhi Chapter. On the second day, along with UK teams presentations, there were presentations on rehabilitation by Dr Singh and Dr Handa. The day finished on a happy note with a session on laughter therapy by Mrs Neelam Wadera and her team. In the evening Mrs Sheela Thadani Chauhan, Patron Member and MSSI Delhi hosted a farewell dinner for the UK team at Sheela's beautiful home.

The UK team distributed badges and t-shirts of MS Awareness at each chapter. They highlighted their visit to India by wearing special MS awareness t-shirts while traveling throughout the country. This brought curious glances and questions about MS by the public at airports.

The UK team had sent a CD of their training presentations prior to their visit and MSSI head office made 500 copies of the material to be distributed to all the attendees in various chapters. MSSI made four common banners for the display at each programme and also printed 550 certificates for the participants of all the chapters.

The UK team presented a silver plate with inscription “To the MS Society of India in friendship from the UK MS Society, February 2007” to each chapter where they conducted the workshops. All chapters also thanked them with typical Indian craft mementos and lots of goodwill.

With heavy hearts we said our final goodbyes with the promises that they would arrange such workshops once again for MSSI. All of them were very warm hearted people and they easily made friends with many people in India. This visit has certainly created stronger bonds between MSSI and the UK MS Society. We are grateful to UK MS Society for taking up this project and now we can work in unison to improving lives of people with MS.