2025 Essay Competition
Click here for announcement
Entry forms can be downloaded here
The winners will receive a prize for an essay on an aspect of chronic pain, of not more than 3000 words. The winning entries MUST be presented at the Pain Relief Foundation.
2025 winners and their presentations:-
Fintan Conway, University of Edinburgh – Rethinking Pain: The Gut Microbiome as a Novel Target in Inflammatory Arthritis
Vernon Fernandes, The London School of Medicine and Dentistry– Digital Twins & Artificial Intelligence: Redefining Equitable Chronic Pain Management
Samuel Brown, University of Cambridge – The ‘Gut–Brain–Pain Axis’ in Chronic Migraine: The Therapeutic Role of Diet and Probiotics
RULES – STUDENT ESSAY COMPETITION 2026
- The competition is open to Medical, Physiotherapy, Nursing, Occupational Therapy and Clinical Psychology Students who are on a UK pre-registration programme in May 2026.
- The essay should be 3000 words or less. Essays of more than 3000 words will not be accepted. The word count does not include tables or references.
Please note: the judges are looking for a well written, original and interesting essay, rather than a scientific dissertation. The winners will present their essay using Power Point slides to a Clinical Pain MDT.
- The essay topic must be about an aspect of Chronic Pain.
- The entry must be well presented in MS Word format.
- Please provide a separate document as your title page showing the essay title, your name, your university, your department and the word count.
On all pages of the essay please put the essay title as a header, and the page number as footer. Your name, university, department or other identifiers should not appear on any page of the essay, other than the title page, otherwise we will return the essay to you for modification.
- Essay entries must be accompanied by a signed entry form sent by post (attached – Entry Form).
Essays received without a signed entry form cannot be accepted. We cannot accept essay entry forms sent by email.
- Essays will be submitted as a Microsoft Word document email attachment sent to Hayley.McCullough@painrelieffoundation.org.uk using your university email account.
- Both the entry form and the essay must reach the Pain Relief Foundation by Friday 25th September 2026 – late entries cannot be accepted. We cannot make allowances for postage or email failure etc. We will notify you when we receive your entry.
- Only single author entries can be accepted.
- You must be available to present your essay to the Pain Relief Foundation in the January or February of 2027 to the Walton Centre Clinical Pain MDT. This is a Zoom/Teams meeting. There is some flexibility in the presentation date. If the winner is not available to present their essay, then the prize will pass to the next best entrant who is available to present.
- Relatives of staff or associates of the Pain Relief Foundation or the Walton Centre are not eligible for the competition.
- Any suspicion of plagiarism will result in disqualification. We will assess all essays using plagiarism software
- Essay writers will be notified of the results of the competition by the end of November 2025, by email. The three winners will receive a cheque for £500, after their presentation. There will be three second prizes of £100
- The judges’ decision is final for all aspects of the competition.
- We look forward to receiving your essay!
Essay deadline Friday 25th September 2025
Essay Winners informed by: Friday 20th November 2025
Essay Presentation: in January or February 2027
For further information contact
Hayley McCullough, Pain Relief Foundation.
Tel: 0151 529 5820
Email: hayley.mccullough@painrelieffoundation.org.uk