A FORMER professor from Dorchester who set up a charity for people with a little-known brain condition is taking his organisation to the international stage. Dr Ian Stuart, 46, set up Cavernoma Alliance UK four years ago and has worked tirelessly to see the charity gain national and now international recognition.

Dr Stuart has suffered from a cavernoma, a condition where clusters of abnormal blood vessels are found in the brain, for 23 years.

He was working as a professor in dramatic arts at the University of Southern California at the time and was able to continue working in spite of the diagnosis.

Seven years ago though, the condition was getting worse, causing his hands to shake and affecting his speech.

Dr Stuart took the decision to give up his professorship and returned to his native England where he settled in Dorchester.

Dr Stuart focused his efforts into helping others in a similar position to himself.

He has overseen the charity as it spread throughout the country, with Cavernoma Alliance UK now boasting 10 ‘hubs’ at hospitals nationwide, from Exeter to Edinburgh.

He said: “We managed to get funding from the National Lottery for setting up these hubs around the country.

“They are essentially centres of excellence that offer expert medical advice and draw in people from the local community.”

As he prepares to host an international forum in London, Dr Stuart says he was surprised by how fast his charity has grown and says he is struggling to keep on top of the workload with his current set-up.

He said: “It’s like I just lit a match and it all blew up. I’m happy for that to happen.

“Now we are going international and to date I have survived with just three volunteers but I’m going to have to employ someone soon on a part-time basis.”

The forum, at the Grange Holborn Hotel in London on June 13, will feature two speakers from America and keynote speaker Helmut Bertalanffy, a renowned neurosurgeon from Zurich in Switzerland.

Dr Stuart said one of the main focuses of his work is to try and raise awareness about cavernomas, as many people are unaware of the condition and it is relatively under-researched.

He said: “It’s new knowledge for scientists, cavernomas only became traceable since around 1984 with the advent of the MRI scan.

“Before that they only found them in postmortems and didn’t know what they were.”

Dr Stuart added that he hoped the success of his Dorchester-based charity was something for the whole town to be proud of.

He said: “It helps put Dorchester on the map as being a place of repute and excellence.”