Southsea clinic backs MSA charity after owner's father died of the illness

Perfect Skin Solutions in Southsea has donated £2,000 to Multiple System Atrophy Trust, a charity that provides specialist support to people living with and affected by MSA.

The business, which provides aesthetic treatments such as botox, dermal fillers and dermatological treatments is owned by Dr Dev Patel, whose father, Dr Ramesh Patel, died from MSA in 2016.

Dev said: ‘My father was my role model and over the years I learnt a lot of “golden nuggets” not to be found in any medical textbooks from him, which made me the doctor I am today.’

His father was a GP in Portsmouth for over 30 years, which was part of Dev’s inspiration to follow in his footsteps.

He also helped set up a GP service for the homeless and donated to several charities over the years.

‘During my military and NHS career I treated a number of patients who had been previously treated by my father, and many commented on how I had a similar bedside manner to his.’ Dev added.

The team, which includes podiatrist and chiropodist Nishal Patel, gathered at their clinic in Winter Road to present a cheque to the charity on September 2.

The firm merged with a podiatry and chiropody clinic run by Nishal and opened in 2014.

It offers laser treatments, fungal nail infection treatments, non-surgical facelifts and much more from face-to-foot.

The charity supports people with MSA, their families and friends, carers and health care professionals by providing information, a helpline, a regular magazine and support groups nationwide.

Through its donors, the trust remains the sole funder of medical research to find both a cause of and cure.

MSA is a very rare, rapidly progressing condition that causes nerve cells to shrink in the brain and affects around five out of every 100,000 people.

It is thought that there are just over 3,000 people in the UK living wit the condition.