As we launch our 2023/2024 Impact Report, our interim Chief Executive Wojtek Trzcinski reflects on the accomplishments, successes and significant milestones we’ve achieved together over the last year.
Reflections on the 2023-2024 impact report
Today I’m delighted to publish our latest Impact Report. A year in which research for our community advanced at pace, the demand on our services increased and £9.5 million was raised through donations and fundraising.
Funding groundbreaking research
High-quality research continues to play a key role in our ambition to improve the lives of people living with a muscle wasting and weakening condition, helping us to better understand the conditions and maximise treatment improvements.
We awarded 11 new grants worth over £1.3m to research projects last year. These projects aim to improve diagnosis, monitor progression, and test potential new treatments for muscle wasting and weakening conditions. This brings the total number of research projects we fund to 43.
This year we celebrated our successful five-year partnership with Oxford University in the MDUK Oxford Neuromuscular Centre, set up in 2019. During the past five years our partnership has transformed the clinical trial landscape in Oxford from almost no trials in 2019 to over 20 either in progress or being set up by end of 2023.
Driving change for access to specialist care and support
We work to help secure access to treatments for muscle wasting and weakening conditions – this year we were involved in 10 treatment appraisals. We’ve also continued to support health professionals in the care of our community, providing upskilling and networking opportunities, while ensuring NHS neuromuscular services receive appropriate attention from commissioners and decision makers.
We completed our first Neuromuscular Centres of Excellence audit since the pandemic, awarding 24 neuromuscular services with a Centre of Excellence or Centre Pursuing Excellence Award. This helps us to identify best practice in provision and the challenges services face that we can help overcome.
We were delighted to see an estimated 80% of the neuromuscular care advisor and clinical nurse specialist UK workforce attend our annual Neuromuscular Care Advisor Conference this year. This is just one area where our partnership with the NHS continues to drive improvements in support, advice, and care.
Living well
We’re here to listen and provide information and advice about all aspects of living with a muscle wasting and weakening condition.
Over the last year nearly 3,000 people contacted our helpline. Our team provided tailored information and emotional support to people living with a condition, their family, carers and friends.
We ran 33 Muscle Group meetings across 10 regions of England, and in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Providing a safe, welcoming space where people affected by muscle wasting and weakening conditions can share experiences, meet other people in their local community, and learn more about the services we offer.
We also held three in-person Information Days in England, Northern Ireland and Scotland as well as our first Accessible Golf Day attended by more than 160 people. These events provide an opportunity for people to connect with others in the muscle wasting community, share stories, hear from experts to help them live well, meet our team, and to find out more about the advice and support we offer.
Thank you!
We remain immensely proud of our wonderful community. Our research partners, support services and funders, volunteers, fundraisers, staff and trustees. Thank you for your support, your involvement, your stories, your requests and your continued passion to make our charity matter, because we all know how much our muscles matter.
In 2023/24, the community and our charity became even more creative in delivering our work.