Professor Dame Pamela Shaw

Professor Dame Pamela Shaw is a pioneering neurologist and a leading figure in tackling motor neurone disease or MND. She is the founder and Director of SITran – the World leading Sheffield Institute for Translational Neuroscience, which is slowly but surely unlocking the secrets of MND and other devastating neurological conditions.

Pam was born in Rothbury, Northumberland, in 1955, and at three moved to Kuwait when her father took up the position of harbour master. She lived there until she was eleven, but with no suitable secondary school available locally, she was sent back to Northumberland to board at Our Lady's Convent High School in Alnwick.

She studied medicine at Newcastle University and began her clinical training in the North-east. Following her appointment as a consultant neurologist she developed an interest in Motor Neurone Disease.

A chance meeting with a recently diagnosed MND patient led to Pam founding the Sheffield Institute for Translational Neuroscience in 2010. She was made a Dame in 2014.

Pam lives in Sheffield with her husband Paul. They have a grown-up daughter, Sophie.

Presenter: Lauren Laverne

Producer: Tom Alban

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