Ms. Heidi Thompson has been working as a multiple sclerosis (MS) specialist nurse for almost 20 years in Northern Ireland. She is currently employed by the Southern Health and Social Care Trust, Portadown. She began working in neurology in 1996, where she developed her interest in MS and helped to initiate new treatments in Northern Ireland. In 2000, she started working as an MS nurse in the Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast, before moving to the Southern Health and Social Care Trust in 2007. She established the first nurse-led clinics in Northern Ireland, which were designed to increase access to local services and ultimately improve standards of care for people living with MS.

Having worked with the UK MS Specialist Nurse Association for many years, in 2008 Ms. Thompson was awarded the ‘Making a Difference’ award. Following the completion of her Specialist Practice qualification, she went on to complete a research project with the University of Ulster, which looked at assessing general nurses’ level of knowledge about MS.