MSA Candlelight 2025
Around a month ago, on a beautiful sunny Saturday in Edinburgh our regular memorial event, MSA Candlelight brought together over 60 people to commemorate the lives of all those lost to multiple system atrophy.
We began with ‘Remembering Sarah’, a reflection on the life of our founder, Sarah Matheson by her niece Mary Stansfeld. Mary told us about Sarah’s childhood days, spent in the Borders near Hawick and the founding years of what we now know as MSA Trust. This was followed by a short talk by one of our current trustees and Scottish representative, Carole Ferguson-Walker, who told us about her experience of being a trustee.
We also enjoyed some poetry readings and songs, which this year reflected our location in Scotland with songs like ‘Sunshine On Leith’ and a poem by Douglas Dunn. Our thanks to our two great attendees for their poetry readings, and to the ‘ladies of Aberdour’ choir for their musical contribution, including an instrumental performance.
Funds raised from the event will be used for the Trust’s research work and attendees were given an update by Dr Lou Wiblin, a member of the Trust’s Scientific Advisory Panel (SAP). She presented on the current research strategy and projects the Trust is funding. Her later discussions with people about their loved ones’ personal experiences and MSA journeys did a lot to put people’s minds at ease.
You can view Dr Wiblin’s research presentation here- MSA2025_10_5a
As always, the memorial event comes with a message of hope: One day we will find the cause and ultimately a cure for MSA.
The afternoon ended with lighting candles, starting with the central candle lit for our founder, Sarah Matheson. This along with the closing remarks from our MSA Nurse Specialist in Scotland, Katie Rigg did not leave many dry eyes by the end of the event!
We are so pleased to host this event for the first time in this part of the country, allowing us to reconnect with our Scottish community. For those who couldn’t attend, we were able to add their dedications (their loved one’s name) into our Book of Remembrance which was posted to the families after the event.
We look forward to your support again in 2027 when MSA Candlelight is being tentatively planned to come back to its original London location.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in the blogs published on these pages are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the MSA Trust.
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Was a pleasure to attend this wonderful afternoon listening to our speakers giving us an insight into MSA and the research taking place to find a cure. Hopefully one day there will be a cure. The choir was a lovely addition to this event and sang my late husband’s favourite song, Sunshine on Leith which was played at his funeral. Very emotional. The instrumental performance was so lovely too. A very informative afternoon. Great to listen to Katie Rigg’s speech too. A very poignant afternoon x
It was a very poignant day! But also very informative to a dreadful disease! I was there to help support my sister Barbara Blackwood Campbell who sadly lost her husband to MSA in June 2016.