Anne-Marie is one of the 6 consultant paediatric neurologists in Leeds and has been the lead for the Children’s Neuromuscular Service since September 2000.

She is actively involved in the Northstar and REACH networks as a member of both steering groups. She co-chairs the Yorkshire, Humber and NE NM network working with multidisciplinary colleagues, patient representatives and MDUK to enhance services and care for children and adults in the region.

She has been a medical trustee for Martin House Children’s Hospice and SMA UK since 2020, further expanding her awareness of the community’s needs and priorities.

Since 2018, Anne- Marie has been on the steering committee of the DMD Care UK project, updating the UK standards of care in DMD, to make them accessible and available to all patients. As a result of this experience, she has developed a proposal to develop a similar SMA Care UK project with the support of the SMA REACH network, NHSE, MDUK, Treat SMA and SMA UK. The proposal, drafted in conjunction with the adult REACH network and SMA UK, has now been submitted to funders.

She is one of the paediatric experts on the NHSE clinical panel set up to support the use of novel therapies in SMA, and a member of the NICE managed access oversight committees for nusinersen and risdiplam. Anne-Marie acted as a clinical expert for the NICE technology appraisals of nusinersen and risdiplam.

She enjoyed teaching and training in her 6 years as the national training advisor for paediatric neurology for the BPNA and RCPCH. She was responsible for developing and implementing the new curriculum including the section on NM disorders. She is currently the secretary of the EPNS committee of national training advisors and continues to have an active role in training future NM consultants.

In the last year, Anne-Marie has contributed to the BMS study day on paediatric NM disorders, as well as being invited to speak to the North West NM network, DMDHub training day, DMD Care UK meeting and various PAG-led webinars.

Leeds is a DMD Hub site for research and she’s has been PI for > 20 clinical trials in NM disorders including the ongoing iSMAC (international consortium on SMA) observational study and the ‘Sapphire’ study evaluating the additional benefit of a myostatin inhibitor in conjunction with SMN2 modifying drugs.