The big hearted Ross-shire FUNdraising group, headed up by horse owner Yvonne Maclean, has raised an incredible £65,000 over the past few years, enabling The Moredun Foundation Equine Grass Sickness Fund to take on a new PhD student, in collaboration with The Moredun Foundation and EastBio Doctoral Training Partnership.

Kate Thomson of the Equine Grass Sickness Fund commented: ‘This is an astounding achievement for Yvonne and her wonderful supporters. Since Yvonne’s horse Mal survived grass sickness Yvonne has been passionate about helping us progress grass sickness research. There is no doubt that Yvonne’s dedication has contributed to our revitalised research programme, and we are very excited to have the Ross-shire PhD student join our team.”

Yvonne Maclean added: “What started as a small fun show to raise funds and awareness in the local equestrian community, has grown into fabulous ongoing fundraising support. The awareness that has been raised has been phenomenal but the generosity, support and teamwork that has also been shown has been quite unbelievable. Never in a million years did I imagine we would have such an impact but the support has just grown and grown. I’m really excited about having more resources working to find the cause of this vile disease and extremely proud of what we have achieved working together with the EGSF.”

Student Olivia Curry joins Moredun and EGSF in October 2021 to start a four year research project, as part of the EASTBio Doctoral Training Programme. Olivia will support EGS Research Fellow, Dr Kathy Geyer, in assisting with the continuing development of the EGS Biobank, engaging with horse owners and vets to continue to raise awareness of the disease and undertaking research projects aimed at elucidating the causal agents involved.

Olivia will also be working directly with EGSF on various projects, including the analysis of data obtained from the case questionnaire, to help update National Equine Surveillance and the advice given on helping reduce the risk of grass sickness.

Olivia comes from the perfect combination of horsey background plus an MSc in Animal Welfare Science, Ethics and Law. We are looking forward to her joining Research Fellow Dr Kathy Geyer, Dr Beth Wells, Professor Lee Innes and Kate Thomson in EGSF’s growing EGS research team, and wish her the best of luck with her research.

For more information contact Dr Kathy Geyer, kathy.geyer@moredun.ac.uk