21 January 2010
Cyberspace Centenarian Launches Facebook Group for SystmOne-Supported Born in Bradford Project
Bradford's oldest resident has lent her support to a ground-breaking research project that aims to improve the health of the city's very youngest.
Aged 104, Ivy Bean has attracted international media interest as the oldest person on both Facebook and Twitter - with celebrities such as Peter Andre and Chris Evans part of her worldwide fan club that totals more than 30,000 people.
From the lounge at Hillside Manor Care Home in Barkerend, the cyperspace centenarian has taken time out from daily "tweeting" with the TV stars to launch the Facebook group for the Born in Bradford (BiB) project.
The project, which will run for 20 years, is tracking 10,000 babies born in Bradford through childhood and into adult life, and is one of the world's biggest studies into why some children fall ill while others do not.
"Ivy is a true inspiration and the perfect ambassador to launch our Facebook page," said Professor John Wright, Director of the Bradford Institute of Health Research, based at Bradford Royal Infirmary. "We now have almost 10,000 babies whose lives are part of the BiB programme and there is a strong community feel to the project among their families."
Ivy says, "Although more than 100 years have passed since I would have been eligible to take part in such a wonderful project, I am very happy to get involved now as a proud Bradfordian. I am pleased to have an opportunity of raising the profile of BiB and the important work it is doing."
The BiB team is collecting information about DNA, lifestyle, family and the environment in which the children grow up, and looking at this information to identify and analyse the different causes of ill health, identify people at increased risk and maybe offer new treatments.
SystmOne is being used in the project as an enabling tool. As SystmOne is a centralised system, it can be used to follow the children as they grow up and move around, recording contact in both primary and secondary care, and has vast potential to improve research capabilities.
BiB is a world first in both its size and its aims - to pinpoint the causes of disease, and find the key to improving the health not only of people in Bradford, but also around the world.
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The BiB Facebook group can be found by visiting facebook.com and searching for 'Born in Bradford'.
