IndexBrief Biography


I was born in Cairo, Egypt, in 1964 and spent much of my childhood and early schooling in Pakistan and Ethiopia. My secondary schooling (and accent) are English.

I attained a B.Sc. in Engineering from the University of Sussex, worked for the National Health Service in London, for the GEC Hirst Research Centre in Wembley and then as a lecturer in the London Electronics College.

Belatedly realising that my dreamed of career as a model had failed to take off, I pursued a Ph.D. in modelling, whilst working as Director of Medical Information Systems at the Centre for the Study of Health, Sickness and Disablement (CSHSD) at Brunel University. Whilst I was awarded the PhD in 1994, qualifications are no substitute for looks and the best I manage is postage-sized facial shots at the back of the occasional "specialist publication".

I have published a number of papers on survival modelling of MND and MS mortality data in a range of countries, and a number of books for people with MS and for people with MND.

I live in Cork City in Ireland with my wife Chryssa and our children Thalia and Melina.