These grants are funded by donations from parishioners on the Church’s annual Day for Life, held on the last Sunday in July and dedicated to celebrating the dignity of life from conception to natural death.

‘We firmly believe that bone marrow cells could have a valuable therapeutic impact in Multiple Sclerosis, and both our clinical trial work and our laboratory research are geared towards exploring, developing and maximising this effect - which we hope in the future will also apply to other neurodegenerative diseases,’ said Professor Scolding.

‘Our immediate aims are to plan and carry out a further larger clinical trial in MS, again using patients' own bone marrow cells, and in parallel to expand our laboratory studies so as to understand how to optimise the use of these cells. This major donation will accelerate our work, and we are extremely grateful to the Bishops' Conference, and to churchgoers throughout the UK, for their great generosity.’

You can listen to a podcast, in which Professor Scolding talks about his work, on the website of the Clifton Diocese.