JK Rowling gets honorary law degree for MS support

LONDON, July 7 (Reuters) ''Harry Potter'' author JK Rowling received an honorary law degree from the University of Aberdeen to mark her support for research into multiple sclerosis.

''I am thrilled, it is very exciting,'' she said about the degree yesterday, which she said was ''particularly meaningful'' to her.

Rowling, whose mother died aged 45 from MS in 1990, has helped fund a programme of research at the university into the debilitating condition.

She became patron of the MS Society Scotland in 2001 after discovering what she has described as the ''appallingly poor quality of care'' available to people with the condition in Scotland.

''I am particularly pleased to support the work that the University's Institute of Medical Sciences is doing on MS research,'' Rowling said.

''As the patron of the MS Society Scotland, and someone with personal experience of the devastating effects of MS, it is a great privilege to be able to help the Institute continue its pioneering work into the causes and effects of multiple sclerosis.'' The 40-year-old writer has already been honoured for her contribution to literature by three other Scottish universities, St Andrews, Edinburgh and Napier.

Rowling wrote the first Harry Potter adventure when she was an unemployed single mother in Edinburgh, but has gone on to become one of the richest authors in history.

The Potter series has sold an estimated 300 million copies worldwide.

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