Meet our patrons
Dr Vicky McGuire
The BPA are delighted to announce Dr Vicky McGuire as one of our patrons. Dr McGuire is the Principal Clinical Scientist working at the Scottish Cutaneous Porphyria Service in Dundee.She is an active member of the scientific porphyria community, heavily involved in testing and research and the joint-chair of the British and Irish Porphyria Network (BIPNET).
Vicky became actively involved in the BPA in 2019 at our Festival Event in Manchester where she bought a really fresh slant to the science behind porphyria. Since then, Vicky has been a co-contributor/organiser of our Re-Connect event in Dundee and was an active member of our volunteer team for the Connect Alfresco event in Leeds in October. We are very grateful for the support and time Vicky has already dedicated to the BPA and we look forward to future collaborations and support in the years to come.
Dr Penny Stein
Dr Stein is a consultant specialising in porphyria at King’s College Hospital. She has a particular interest in the acute porphyrias and provides care for adult patients with all forms of acute porphyria including the most severely affected patients with recurrent or complicated attacks. Penny’s support of the BPA has been tremendous and she kindly agreed to be a patron a number of years ago.
Dr Stein’s work was instrumental in the establishment of the National Acute Porphyria Service (NAPS) in 2012 and she has played a key role in the subsequent development and running of this service. Penny is actively involved in the work of the British and Irish Porphyria Network (BIPNET) (current joint Chair) and the European Porphyria Network (EPNET), where she leads a working group that is looking to develop consensus clinical guidelines for the acute porphyrias.
Prof David Rees
Professor Rees is a Consultant Paediatric Haematologist with a specialist interest in porphyria. He is Director of King’s College Hospital National Acute Porphyria Service (NAPS), one of the two main NAPS centres.
He trained at Cambridge University and St. Thomas’ Hospital Medical School and has previously worked in London, Oxford and Sheffield. He spent six years in the Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine in Oxford researching thalassaemia.
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Dr Robert Sarkany
Dr Sarkany is a Consultant Dermatologist and Head of Photodermatology at St John’s Institute of Dermatology at St Thomas’ Hospital in London.
He is an experienced Consultant Dermatologist and an international authority in the fields of UV light therapy, photodermatology and the cutaneous porphyrias. For many years Bob has been an active advisor to the BPA on all things related to cutaneous porphyrias and kindly agreed to be a patron in 2018. Dr Sarkany is currently joint lead of the British and Irish Porphyria Network.
Dr Mike Badminton
Mike is the Clinical Lead for the National Acute Porphyria Service (NAPS) Cardiff Centre, and is Director of the Cardiff SAS Porphyria Service laboratories. He has been involved in the diagnosis and management of all types of porphyria since 2001 and his research interests include the erythropoietic porphyrias, and more recently identifying modifier genes in acute porphyria. Mike has given up countless days to support the BPA with guidance and at events.
He is a founder member of the European Porphyria Network (EPNET), which was established to improve healthcare for porphyria patients and their families. He is involved in a number of international collaborative projects aimed at supporting other clinicians diagnosing and managing porphyria through sharing diagnostic information and developing consensus guidelines.
Prof Felicity Stewart
Prof Stewart is a Consultant Chemical Pathologist at Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust who has worked to develop the Salford porphyria clinical and laboratory service for the past 19 years, gaining recognition as one of the specialist centres in the European Porphyria Network in 2006. Since 2012, she has provided outreach clinics jointly with Dr Mike Badminton as part of the National Acute Porphyria Service (NAPS).
She chaired the British and Irish Porphyria Network from 2008 to 2014. Felicity helped organise the first BPA Awareness Day in Salford in 2005 and was made a patron in 2012. She is a Professor of Medical Education in the University of Manchester and former Hospital Dean in Salford Royal. In September 2019, she was appointed as the first female Director of Undergraduate Medical Studies in the University of Manchester medical school.
Prof George Elder
Prof Elder has been a long-standing patron of the BPA and has presented at many meetings. His guidance was instrumental in the early days of the BPA after initially helping to get the very first group of patients together informally. Emeritus Professor of Medical Biochemistry at the University of Wales, Cardiff, Prof Elder retired in the early 2000s, but stayed involved in research and the porphyria field for many years. In 1998 he received a CBE for services to medicine.