Project title - Developing a Lifestyle Intervention Aiming to Support People with Vascular Ehlers Danlos Syndrome (EDS)

Applications are invited for a Transforming Lives PhD scholarship, Sheffield Hallam University, in Health and Social Care, commencing 01 October 2024.

The scholarship is for three and a half years full-time study and covers home PhD fees, currently £4,712, and pays an annual stipend at the living wage foundation rate of £19,772 per year in the academic year 2023/24 This stipend payment will increase annually based on the rate set by the living wage foundation for the duration of the scholarship.

Project title - Developing a lifestyle intervention aiming to support people with vascular Ehlers Danlos Syndrome (EDS)

Supervisors:

Director studies: Professor Markos Klonizakis 

1^st supervisor: Miss. Emily Newton 

Internal advisor: Dr. Anil Gumber 

About the Programme

This PhD programme is a collaboration between two leading charities (“Ehlers-Danlos Support UK” and “Annabelle’s Challenge”), which support people with Vascular Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS) and Lifestyle, Exercise and Nutrition Improvement (LENI) Research Group of the Department of Nursing and Midwifery of Sheffield Hallam University. LENI Research Group is world-acclaimed research group, which focuses on the development and implementation of lifestyle interventions, aiming to prevent and treat Non-Communicable Diseases. The programme will be actively supported by clinicians at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and people with Vascular EDS, who will be consulting the successful candidate and the supervisory team throughout the programme.

The programme will be carried out at the Health Research Institute (HRI), a nucleus for health and care research across Sheffield Hallam.

About the PhD

Vascular Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS) is a life-changing condition. It affects the blood vessels and internal organs, which can cause them to split open and lead to life-threatening bleeding.

It is often associated with a shortened lifespan. Among affected people diagnosed as the result of a complication, 25% have experienced a significant medical complication by age 20 and more than 80% by age 40. The median life expectancy for people affected by vascular EDS is 48 years.

Once diagnosed, people with Vascular EDS have to change their lifestyles dramatically. Although exercise may support people with Vascular EDS to manage their condition, research is so limited that no lifestyle management programme exists, particularly in relation to the role of exercise as a major component. This makes it difficult for clinicians to provide guidance, especially for patients already leading a very active lifestyle pre-diagnosis. Learning they have vascular EDS and managing the risks can be a very unsettling time.

This PhD programme will aim to change that and produce an exercise-based lifestyle intervention, which will help people with Vascular EDS manage of the condition, and which ultimately be adopted by the NHS and healthcare systems around the world. This in ambitious programme, which will give the successful candidate a “once-in-a-lifetime" opportunity to pave the way so that the lives of thousands of people with Vascular EDS are improved.

Closing date for applications: 29^th May 2024 at 12 noon.

Interviews: week commencing 17^th June 2024

Please contact the Health Research Institute Research Team for further information about the scholarship and how to apply at Health-PGR-admissions@shu.ac.uk

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