Honorary Fellowship for Duchess of Cornwall
13 Sep 2007
Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cornwall was awarded an Honorary Fellowship of King's College London today (Thursday 13 September) in recognition of her outstanding contribution through her role as a patron of numerous charitable organisations, particularly as President of the National Osteoporosis Society (NOS), with whose work King's is closely associated.
At a ceremony in the College's Strand Chapel the Honorary Fellowship was conferred on Her Royal Highness by The Chairman of King's College Council, Baroness Rawlings. The Honorary Fellowship is the highest honour the College can bestow: it recognises distinction in fields outside academic life.
The Ceremony was attended by staff, students, Fellows and guests of the College together with members and staff of the NOS, including Mrs Claire Severgnini, the Chief Executive of NOS and Society Trustees.
Chairman of King's College Council, Baroness Rawlings comments: ‘I am delighted to welcome our newest Honorary Fellow, Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cornwall, inaugurating what I hope will be a long and happy association with the College. Under Her Royal Highness' patronage the National Osteoporosis Society has turned the spotlight on relieving the suffering of the ‘silent disease'.'
President
Osteoporosis is a loss of density in bones leading them to become more fragile and prone to break. Every three minutes someone in the UK breaks a bone as a result of this disease. This can cost the NHS almost £5 million per day. HRH The Duchess of Cornwall was made President of the NOS in October 2001.
Important work in the field of osteoporosis is undertaken at King's. Ignac Fogelman, Professor of Nuclear Medicine, Senior Lecturer, Dr Glen Blake, and Lecturer, Dr Michelle Frost, of the Division of Imaging Sciences in the School of Medicine, have received generous support from the NOS for doctoral research. From 2002-05 King's student Amelia Moore undertook her PhD working on a project which involved investigating the use of 99mTc-MDP plasma clearance methods for quantifying bone metabolism. She now works at the College as a Postdoctoral Research Associate.
Sylvia Edwards will take up the NOS-funded Linda Edwards Memorial PhD Studentship at King's in October, to research the link between osteoporosis and heart disease.
Dr Frost has been the recipient, on five occasions, of the NOS Young Investigator Award.
Mrs Claire Severgnini, Chief Executive of National Osteoporosis Society, said: ‘The Duchess of Cornwall, for more than ten years, has worked very hard alongside the National Osteoporosis Society to raise the profile of a disease that affects millions but has not always got the attention it deserves. Her Royal Highness' dedication and commitment to improving the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of osteoporosis has been resolute. We are delighted that the Duchess' excellent work on osteoporosis is being recognized by King's College London.'
Notes to editors
King's College London
King's College London is the fourth oldest university in England with more than 13,700 undergraduates and 6,200 graduate students in nine schools of study based at five London campuses. It is a member of the Russell Group: a coalition of the UK's major research-based universities. The College has had 24 of its subject-areas awarded the highest rating of 5* and 5 for research quality, demonstrating excellence at an international level, and it has recently received an excellent result in its audit by the Quality Assurance Agency.
King's has a particularly distinguished reputation in the humanities, law, international relations, medicine, nursing and the sciences, and has played a major role in many of the advances that have shaped modern life, such as the discovery of the structure of DNA. It is the largest centre for the education of healthcare professionals in Europe and is home to five Medical Research Council Centres – more than any other university.
King's is in the top group of UK universities for research earnings, with income from grants and contracts of more than £110 million, and has an annual income of more than £387 million.
National Osteoporosis Society
The National Osteoporosis Society is the only UK charity dedicated to improving the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of this fragile bone disease. In the United Kingdom, one in two women and one in five men will break a bone, mainly because of osteoporosis.
Further information
Melanie Gardner
Public Relations Department
King's College London
Tel: 020 7848 3073
Email:
melanie.gardner@kcl.ac.uk