The King's MND Care and Research Centre is in Camberwell in London. It is easily accessible by train to Denmark Hill Station, or bus. A map and train times are available.
Denmark Hill British Rail station is at the top of Windsor Walk. The walk along Denmark Hill and down to the clinic only takes a couple of minutes but there is no lift at the station. British Rail trains run from Blackfriars, Elephant & Castle, Victoria and London Bridge to Denmark Hill. There is also a Thameslink service which runs approximately every 30 minutes from King's Cross Thameslink Station to the Elephant & Castle where you need to change for Denmark Hill.
Nearest stations are Oval and Elephant and Castle from where the journey is completed by bus.
Buses 40, 68, 176 and 468 from Elephant and Castle stop directly outside the Maudsley Hospital on Denmark Hill, together they provide a very regular service. The 185 bus runs from Victoria and the Oval undergroun d station, stops on Denmark Hill and continues to Lewisham. The 42, and 35 runs from Liverpool Street
Car parking is difficult around the hospital but it is available in front of the Maudsley Hospital on Denmark Hill, (cost approximately £2 per hour). There is a space for setting down passengers outside Mapother House. Patients with Disability Orange Badges can park for three hours on the double yellow lines in De Crespigny Park, directly in front of Mapother House.
Both Professor Leigh and Dr Shaw are Consultant Neurologists specialising in motor nerve disorders. Your appointment is to be seen by Professor Nigel Leigh or Dr Chris Shaw and you will have been told which doctor you will be seeing in your appointment letter. You may also see a Specialist Registrar who would take some initial information from you. Your would then see your Consultant Neurologist to proceed with the appointment.
The appointment will last around 1 hour. The doctor will ask you for a history of any symptoms and will then physically examine you. At this stage Professor Leigh or Dr Shaw may be able to discuss what they think is going on. You will then have t he opportunity to discuss what you feel is your main concern, perhaps finding out about your diagnosis, asking about research, asking about your symptoms or dealing with things at home.
If Professor Leigh or Dr Shaw are not sure from a clinical examination what your diagnosis is they may suggest further tests. Depending on where you live, these may take place at your local hospital or at King's. In discussion with your consultant, you may have a further appointment once the results of these tests are available.
At this first appointment, Professor Leigh and Dr Shaw are able to refer you to a team of specialist therapists. This would not affect any arrangements you may already have with your local team of therapists.
Not everyone who comes to the clinic wishes to take part in research and there is no obligation to do so. There are however many ways in which people can help if they want to:
A blood sample taken from a vein in your arm can be used for many different projects. For example, we are currently extracting DNA from blood to study genes that may be important in the cause of MND even though, in most people, MND is not directly inherited.
In most clinical trials a new drug is compared with a dummy (placebo) and patients are randomly allocated to receive either the active drug or the placebo. Neither you nor the team here would know which drug was being taken until the end of the trial. You may not benefit directly, but this is an important contribution to research into drugs which may slow the progression of the disease.
We are currently studying new ways to measure muscle strength in the limbs and the breathing muscles. This will help us to assess treatments more accurately.
We are using new types of brain scanning to study the activity and chemistry of the brain in MND. This will give us a better understanding of the causes and treatment of the condition. For comparison we also need volunteers who do not have MND.
Tests of memory and thinking assess different aspects of brain function and provide us with a greater understanding of MND, particularly when combined with information gained from the scanning techniques mentioned above.
It is important to understand the impact MND has on people's lives and how they cope with it. We are currently undertaking a project to look at this through interviews and questionnaires. We need to know what factors make life particularly difficult for people affected by MND and their families and how best we can help and develop services and care.
You can get more information directly from the MND clinic on: 0171-346-5172
Although we are happy to answer general questions, we will not be able to answer questions of a medical nature.
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