Meet the team guiding our research programme. They manage our open grant round and help ensure we invest in practical, clinician‑led studies that improve MS services and address inequalities.
Sarah brings extensive nursing, project management, and leadership experience. She has a longstanding focus on supporting people with complex needs and long-term neurological conditions. She worked for many years in hospices in UK and America, and was then a district nurse in Cambridge, prior to specialising in Multiple Sclerosis. She has until recently managed a nurse-led community multiple sclerosis service in Huntingdonshire. The team there supported people from diagnosis through to end of life. She worked closely with community neurorehabilitation and stroke teams and was part of the leadership team. She has significant experience supporting services, people, and teams. Sarah has been a Queen’s Nurse for 14 years and was regional lead for the east of England for eight years. Sarah is a well-known speaker within neuro-palliative and MS care.
Ruth began her neurology career at the Royal Free Hospital in London and has worked in neurological care for over 30 years. She spent two decades as an MS specialist nurse and has supported people with motor neurone disease, Parkinson’s and movement disorders. Her career spans clinical care, service development and professional education in the UK and Australia. She previously spent five years working in national neurology education with Neurology Academy and continues to contribute to the wider neurological community as a committee member of the Royal College of Nursing Neuroscience Forum and a trustee for the charity MS Together. In December 2025, Ruth joined the MS Trust as Director of Services and Healthcare Professional Lead, supporting education, service innovation and research.
Dr Gavin Brittain is an NIHR Clinical Lecturer in Neurology at the Sheffield Institute for Translational Neuroscience, University of Sheffield.
He works within the Sheffield MS Research group, and his interests include advanced cellular therapy and digital outcome measures in multiple sclerosis.
Gavin has been working within an advisory role to help us work through the process of building our grants portal and making sure the grant strategy and application is fit for purpose.
