'Bring Me Sunshine' says Vitamin D Campaigner

D Day for schoolboy fighting to prevent MS

15 year old Ryan McLaughlin won’t be going to school today. Instead he’ll be attending
an international summit on vitamin D and multiple sclerosis, a summit that he helped
to initiate and arrange. Ryan will welcome Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing
Nicola Sturgeon to the event in Glasgow at which she is set to deliver a keynote address.

The summit is the latest highlight in the schoolboy’s ‘Shine on Scotland’ campaign which is
lobbying for vitamin D supplements to be made available to young children and pregnant
women in Scotland. Ryan’s Mum Kirsten has MS and recent research suggests a link
between vitamin D deficiency and the condition. His hope is to help reduce the chances of
future generations developing MS.

The summit is being hosted in conjunction with the MS Society Scotland and the Scottish
Government and has attracted world-class researchers from across the globe. Participants
will be looking at vitamin D as a public health policy issue in Scotland.

Ryan is very hopeful of a successful outcome:

“It’s fantastic that all of these very important and very busy people have taken the time to
come to Glasgow and consider the issues raised by my campaign. It will soon be winter and
in Scotland the sun is not strong enough over winter to provide the levels of vitamin D that
people need”.

David McNiven, Director of MS Society Scotland, said:

“To host this event in Scotland is a great achievement and I’m looking forward to contributing
to the discussion on vitamin D and MS. Turning research into policy on matters like this is
central to the Society’s objectives and I’m delighted we have a chance to do that today”.

Notes to Editors:

A press conference will take place at the Summit venue, The Beardmore Hotel, at 12.45pm
on Tuesday 21 September.

Ryan McLaughlin, David McNiven and Professor George Ebers will be present to answer
questions.

Directions to the Beardmore can be found at http://www.thebeardmore.com/location/

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