Culture

JK Rowling Quits MS Society Charity Over Internal Feud

by Rob Walker | April 9, 2009 at 05:25 am

1041 views | 4 Recommendations | 4 comments

World famous author JK Rowling quit as a patron for the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Scotland, claiming that the charity is split by an internal struggle.

Rowling's mother had the disease and died in 1990, and she has long spoken out against the lack of funding for MS in Scotland. She has been backing the charity for nearly a decade, but said that conflict between the company in Scotland and management in London had resulted in resignations and demoralisation.

An MS Society spokesman said it was undergoing a governance review and regretted Ms Rowling's departure.
Ms Rowling said in a statement: "I have now reluctantly decided that I cannot, in good conscience, continue to be the public face of a charity that is changing beyond recognition from the one with which I have been so proud to be associated."

She said she had taken the decision to stand down "with profound sadness and regret" but added that her financial support of a research project at Edinburgh University would continue.

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mudricky

at 05:48 on April 9th, 2009

She does a lot for MS reseach, so if she feels she had to pull out then I'm sure the reasons for this are very genuine.

Uwe Paschen

at 06:22 on April 9th, 2009

The BBC Article quotes the MS society as saying,

"We are a strong, democratic organization and this review is being done in consultation with all of our 43,000 members.

"We would have preferred to do this with JK Rowling's involvement, but we appreciate that significant change can be difficult."

Further they say that they should have consulted Ms Rowling. It sounds like an administrative decision that was needed due to problem between England and Scotland.

She may have reacted a little hasty.