Nina raises a further £160,000

We are all extremely grateful to Nina Jackson for her impressive work organising another fundraising event. Nina has an amazing ability to rally people of tremendous stamina and persistence. As a sponsor and very grateful recipient, I feel humbled by everything the team endured.

The cyclists included two nurses from the Bethlem's Eating Disorders Unit and a parent of an ex-patient on that unit. Many of the cyclists were veterans of Cycle Vietnam.

Money raised by Nina has been an invaluable resource for our research programme, helping us bridge funding gaps and maintain standards of excellence. Cycle Vietnam enabled Rudolf Uher to finish his brain scanning research before starting his Wellcome International Fellowship. He has now submitted his PhD thesis and has a paper in press. Cycle Chile money will help support his next project.

We have bought a skin conductance machine so Kate Tchanturia can study the emotional arousal associated with decision-making. This is an area of difficulty for many of our patients; and it links with Rudolf's work.

We have two Nina Jackson Research Fellows. Laura Southgate is studying information processing in anorexia nervosa. Jenna Whitney is examining how families and other carers are affected by the illness; and reviewing an exciting new intervention. We funded Nadia Micale's work on eating disorders within families, which she will now continue as a lecturer at the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at The Maudsley.

Cycle Chile money will fund the last year of Jo Holliday's PhD, which she has been doing part-time while also working with the European Research Project. Jo will continue to develop the website, which she has redesigned.

We will also use the money to re-examine the large GP database with a team from Harvard, USA, exploring how changes in diagnostic practices and public awareness have affected the fluctuating incidence of bulimia nervosa.

We are immensely grateful to Priory Healthcare for the vital support they gave Nina; we thank them for this and their sponsorship. We also thank all of you who have helped with our studies and Joanna Watson for all her help and support with this newsletter.

Janet Treasure

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