BU Research Blog

Sarah Clark, BU MSc Student gives a presentation at The Ehlers-Danlos Society Global Learning Conference in Dublin on 3^rd August, presenting her May 2021 BMJ paper “Help me trust you after my misdiagnosis”.  

https://www.ehlers-danlos.com/events/2023-global-learning-conference/

Sarah, who has hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, is a Masters student at BU studying Clinical and Developmental Neuropsychology.  Sarah sits as a patient expert in the EDS International Consortium, Psychiatric and Psychological Aspects Working Group: https://www.ehlers-danlos.com/international-consortium-working-groups/#psychiatric

Sarah has personal interests in “the diagnostic journey”, ‘harm from the medical system” and “medically-induced PTSD”, having previously been under a community mental health team for 15 years and misdiagnosed with the highly stigmatising label of EUPD.  Raising awareness of the harm caused by misdiagnosis is of huge importance to Sarah.   In fact, Sarah was diagnosed last May with Autism Spectrum Condition, a realisation she only made thanks to attending the autism lectures on her MSc course here at BU!  For her MSc Research Project she is researching “What are the daily experiences of autistic people living with hEDS?”

Sarah is studying part-time at BU due to the amount of time managing several complex medical conditions takes each day, but alongside managing her wellbeing, Sarah regularly engages in public awareness work, volunteering and charity fundraising work. She is also a keen photographer, writer and yogi and was featured in Hotpod Yoga’s Move with Purpose Campaign recently where she talked about her late-autism diagnosis: https://hotpodyoga.com/move-with-purpose/