Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

I have supported the Crohn's MAP Vaccine since 2013. There have been so many ups and downs along the way. It's been exhausting, waiting for permissions, replacing broken machinery and spreading the word about this new technology, the viral vector vaccine created at The Jenner Institute in Oxford. The big hope is that this treatment will be both therapeutic and preventative against MAP infection, which is increasingly thought to be involved in Crohn's etiology.

The vaccine trial itself has been funded by investment through HAV Vaccines (http://www.hav-vaccines.com/html/HAVantiMapvaccine.html), but the companion diagnostic test has been developed at King's College London by a small team led by Professor John Hermon-Taylor and it is this part of the operation for which I have been raising awareness and funds for the past seven years. The two aspects of this project are mutually dependent. One cannot go ahead without the other.

Cruelly (or that is how it felt!), Covid-19 came along a year ago and all trials were put on hold, including ours which had been poised to begin at St Thomas's Hospital in London. To add to this blow came the news that the Covid-19 vaccination - also developed by Jenner - was going to use exactly the same technology as ours, including a very similar viral vector. It felt like the rug had been pulled from under us. However, some good news on this front is that there will, thanks to a coronavirus wreaking havoc on us all, be an awful lot more data on how well the technology works; more than we could ever have hoped to get from our own modest trial. So we are stoically carrying on and hoping for the best.

The bottom line is that funds are still needed for the diagnostic MAP test (you can read more here: https://crohnsmapvaccine.com/treatment/map_test/ ).

So...

It isn't often that my two worlds collide: scientific research and Latin dance - but on 15th March 2021 they DID!

I have run an un-partnered Latin dance fitness class since 2017. It is a lot of fun learning the moves and then putting our actions into practice to some great music. Recently, of course, since lockdown we have been forced online and this gave me a tempting opportunity to raise some money and awareness for the Crohn's MAP Vaccine & test. Many of you joined in by making a donation to this page and were sent a link for Monday 15th March at 2.30pm. And we danced together for an hour!

Why 15th March? Well it's World MAP Day, a day to spread awareness about the soil pathogen which is, we believe, at the root of this devastating Inflammatory Bowel Disease. 15th March was chosen because that is the date (in 2017) of the first vaccination given by The Jenner Institute in the phase 1 trial of the Crohn's MAP Vaccine on healthy individuals. (It has already been proven safe in healthy people - whereas it is the crucial trial on Crohn's patients which is currently on hold).

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving - they'll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they'll send your money directly to the charity. So it's the most efficient way to donate - saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

More info on MAP and the vaccine: https://www.facebook.com/crohnsmapvaccine

If you are a Crohn's sufferer and would like to join our 2000 strong support group, you can do so here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/crohnsdiseasesupport