Local Senedd Member Natasha Asghar is supporting Migraine Awareness Week (5-11 September) to call attention to the struggle 10 million people face and the need for better care.
Migraine is one of the most disabling conditions in the world, affecting one in seven people in the UK. A new report by the UK’s leading migraine charity The Migraine Trust reveals the legacy of pain and damaged lives caused by the UK’s broken migraine healthcare system.
From being dismissed as ‘just having a headache’, waiting years to be diagnosed, to a lack of access to specialist care and new treatment, the report launched for Migraine Awareness Week exposes a broken healthcare system that migraine patients struggle to navigate.
The Migraine Trust says this is leading to the worsening of people’s migraine, limiting their ability to carry out their lives with a huge impact on personal relationships, work and mental health. It is calling for an urgent review of migraine healthcare.
Natasha Asghar said:
“As someone who suffers from migraine myself, I'm supporting Migraine Awareness Week to lend my voice to the ten million people in the UK who live with migraine, and to call for better migraine care. This new work by The Migraine Trust shows we badly need investment in training and specialist services, to lift the burden migraine places on people and our NHS.
"Acting to improve migraine care will improve quality of life for millions of people, and will also reduce work days lost to illness and relieve pressure on A&E departments. Better care could save many more of the 43 million work days that are lost to migraine in the UK each year, and avoid most of the 16,500 emergency admissions for headaches and migraine attacks if we simply give people better care. Change is urgently needed.”
