On 28 January 2025, the BSMS GHRU Phase 2 in collaboration with the UK Coalition against Neglected Tropical Diseases, hosted an event at the House of Lords titled Voices of Resilience: Community Perspectives and UK Partnership to End Neglected Tropical Diseases, to mark World Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) Day. We at BSMS were proud to be part of such a successful collaborative event. Dr Gemma Aellah, Research Fellow, of BSMS’s Centre for Equitable Global Health Research, chairs the UK Coalition Influencing Group, which organised the event.
The event called on the UK government to reinstate its global leadership in NTDs through comprehensive inclusion of NTDs within health systems while ensuring dedicated funding for research and implementation. Strong and transparent partnership in this approach is crucial and should explicitly target the most marginalised populations, specifically focusing on women and girls.
A wide variety of speakers were present to speak, including the GHRU Phase 2’s Co-Investigator Dr Sahar Bakhiet. Other guest speakers included The Rt Hon Anneliese Dodds, Minister for Development at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), people with lived experience of NTDs, health ministries of endemic countries, the World Health Organization (WHO), civil society, fellow researchers, and journalists.
Photo credit: Unlimit Health/Paula Plaza
As host, Professor The Lord Trees, Co-Chair of the APPG on Malaria and NTDs, said at the event’s opening:
“In the UK we are justly proud of our contribution to NTDs in political leadership, but particularly in research and development and clinical leadership…What’s really important as well is having some survivors from NTDs here and they are usually the best advocates, politically and publicly to get support for these problems.”
Photo credit: Unlimit Health/Paula Plaza
Mulikat Owanlawon, Noma survivor and President and Co-Founder of Elysium Noma Survivors Association, spoke about living with Noma, a disease officially recognised as an NTD by WHO in December 2023, encouraging the audience to continue their support, emphasising:
“You can see on my face the damages that have been done because of this disease. The people affected by NTDs have dreams and I want to ask you this – how can you help us to achieve our dreams? 90% of the people affected by Noma die, they do not survive. I am lucky, and today I am here. I’m here to encourage you to address this treatable and preventable disease.”
Photo credit: Unlimit Health/Paula Plaza
The Rt Hon Anneliese Dodds MP, Minister for Women and Equalities, remarked:
“Every pound that goes into addressing neglected tropical diseases pays for itself 25 times over, and we know that in Nigeria alone, reaching the 2030 targets for elimination could result in an additional 19 billion increase in productivity. The moral case is the strongest one, but my goodness, what a strong economic case as well.”
Minister Dodds highlighted the ways in which the UK is seeking to play its part by building on UK leadership since the London Declaration, supporting WHO’s [NTD] roadmap, prevention, treatment, and research and development through the UK’s 15-million-pound contribution to the Reaching the Last Mile funds initiative and emphasising an approach of genuine respectful partnerships.
She ended by celebrating President Carter’s extraordinary contribution to the fight against NTDs.
Photo credit: Unlimit Health/Paula Plaza
Dr Anthony Solomon, Chief Scientist at WHO provided an update on the global progress made in meeting the WHO 2030 roadmap goals. He said:
“As of 2023, the data suggests we have collectively achieved a 31% reduction and that we are currently not on track. It’s also fair to say that progress has been very uneven across diseases and between countries, and in order to change back, we have to start to work smarter as well as harder.
I’m delighted to hear from Minister Dodds this evening, looking towards a future leadership model and a renewed role of the UK in this space. And I’d like to give my commitment for WHO to work alongside and provide any support that’s necessary.”
Dan Izzett, leprosy campaigner. Photo credit: Unlimit Health/Paula Plaza
Dan Izzett, a leprosy advocate, gave a powerful testimony after being diagnosed with leprosy in 1972, which he and his wife kept secret for 28 years recalling:
“I don’t know how many of you have seen or met anybody that’s had leprosy. But this evening you’ve met me, and my wife.
NTDs. It’s a difficult term to pin down. What is neglected? Just something we don’t think about, isn’t it? I was diagnosed in 1972 and by 1977, I burned my feet and had my leg amputated. And then I had a toe amputated, then I had a finger amputated.
We need your support.”
Dr Gem Aellah, BSMS facilitating a spoken testimony from Dr Sahar Bakhiet. Photo credit: Unlimit Health/Paula Plaza
Dr Sahar Bakhiet from the Institute of Endemic Diseases and the Mycetoma Research Centre, University of Khartoum Sudan, highlighted the need for those often forgotten to be considered when creating interventions. She said:
“NTDs are usually unseen stories of huge pain, misery, stigma and negligence faced by patients and their communities. There is an urgent need to support research that finds practical, affordable, and accessible solutions—things like affordable treatments, tools that work in rural areas, and education to prevent these diseases.”
Dr Wendy Harrison, CEO of Unlimit Health with Arjun Arun one of the shortlisted winners of the poster competition. Image by: Paula Plaza/Unlimit Health.
The closing remarks came from Dr Wendy Harrison, CEO of Unlimit Health:
“This really isn’t just about health. It’s about dignity, it’s about economic opportunity, and breaking those intergenerational cycles of poverty.”
Dr Harrison also praised the children shortlisted as winners of the Make a Wish poster competition co-organised by Unlimit Health and The Leprosy Mission. The competition aimed to raise awareness of NTDs among children and young people in the UK.
The UK Coalition against NTDs membership also includes Martha Varney from the All-party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Malaria and Neglected Tropical Diseases, The International Coalition for Trachoma Control, CBM Christian Blind Mission, Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative – DNDi, Brighton and Sussex Medical School, Orbis International, The Leprosy Mission England and Wales, and The Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.
