Martyn Hooper MBE

In 2004 Martyn was forced to take early retirement from a successful career teaching in further and higher education. His late diagnosis meant that he is left with permanent nerve damage that compromises his cognitive as well as physical abilities. He founded the PA Society with the sole intention of providing newly diagnosed patients with pernicious anaemia with a plain-English explanation of the diseases. However, it soon became clear that there were serious problems with the diagnosis and the treatment of the disease which meant the charity was to have a new aim – to get the way in which the disease is diagnosed and treated thoroughly re-evaluated.

Following a period of lobbying in 2014 the British Committee for Standards in Haematology published their Guideline on Cobalamin and Folate Disorders that clearly identified the shortcomings of the assays used in the diagnosis process of pernicious anaemia.

In 2019, NICE commissioned a Guideline on the diagnosis and maintenance of pernicious anaemia (due Nov. 2023) and in late 2021 the James Lind Alliance published the results of their Priority Setting Partnership that identified ten uncertainties relating to the diagnosis and treatment of the disease.

Martyn has written three books on Pernicious Anaemia and a Cookbook containing recipes rich in vitamin B₁₂.

Martyn was made MBE in 2016 for his work with patients with pernicious anaemia and their families and friends.