PET director Sarah Norcross has appeared across the print, broadcast and online media this month, discussing the news that at least one child with donated mitochondria has been born in the UK.
Sarah is pictured above discussing this on Channel 5 News alongside Liz Curtis, founder of the UK's leading mitochondrial disease charity – the Lily Foundation. PET and the Lily Foundation spent many years campaigning together for a change in the law, and were ultimately successful, making the UK the first country in the world to legislate for the use of mitochondrial donation in treatment.
This month's story was initially reported by the Guardian newspaper in an article that quoted Sarah. Many of the articles that followed, including this BBC News article and this article in the British Medical Journal, also featured quotes from Sarah.
The news was discussed on radio and TV, with Sarah interviewed on BBC Radio 4's Today programme (listen here, beginning at the 1:16:20 mark) and on BBC Radio Scotland's Lunchtime Live programme (listen here, beginning at the 0:42:45 mark).
ITV News visited the PET office to conduct its interview with Sarah, as pictured below. You can watch that ITV News item here.
Sarah also was interviewed on Sky News. Pictured below, speaking to Kay Burley alongside Sarah, is Dr Cathy Herbrand – Deputy Director of De Montfort University's Centre for Reproduction Research.
Meanwhile, PET created a' Mythbusting Mitochondrial Donation' resource to clear up some common misunderstandings. Downloaded that resource here.
Finally, PET compiled a series of videos – by the Wellcome Centre for Mitochondrial Research, Genetic Alliance UK, the Lily Foundation and others – which do a good job of explaining this subject. These videos can be found here.
