The building may be quite nondescript – small, squat and an unappealing shade of brown – but inside it changes lives. The Bristol and Avon Multiple Sclerosis Centre (Brams), in a self-contained building near the entrance to Frenchay Hospital, opened three years ago to provide a dedicated place for people with the neurological condition.

It gives them access to a range of therapies and specialist nurses and doctors, as well as the chance to try the latest pioneering treatments.

With an infusion suite within the centre, people with MS can attend for intravenous treatments without having to go into the main hospital building.

Kirsty Inglis, speciality doctor in MS, said she thinks patients like the way the centre recognises their condition specifically rather than being treated in a general neurology department alongside people with lots of other illnesses and conditions.

"It's a one-stop shop really. It has got physio and nurses, the IV suite," she said.

"People don't have to trail around lots of different departments anymore."

It was the first unit of its kind to open in the UK and works alongside the research department also based on the Frenchay Hospital site.

Denise Owen, the senior nurse in MS care and research based at the unit, said: "We have grown enormously and probably would not have been able to do that without the centre and patients would not have been able to access the care.

"We weren't doing any of the intravenous infusions before because we didn't have the suite. That means that patients don't have to come into hospital in between, they can just come in and out at their convenience and it suits their lifestyle and work.

"They know now where they are coming and they know the staff here because we don't change.

"They know that everybody has got MS and they can have a chat with somebody else with MS and many of our patients seem to like that."

The Brams centre was opened after a dedicated charity raised £250,000, for the patient and research equipment and the refurbishment of a former laboratory.

As well as offering therapies and support, the MS centre carries out clinical trials, giving patients the chance to try the latest developments in drugs and other treatments.

Ms Owen said that the way the centre works also helps the team recruit patients for clinical trials, including commercial drugs projects.

"Patients are informed about the trials so that they feel they can participate and know they will be looked after really well within that time," she said.

"We would not have been able to do this if we didn't have the centre."

There are different types of MS and the varying trials at the Brams centre focus on the different ways that the condition can present itself in the course of its progression.

Dr Inglis said that if patients are suitable for trials that are being recruited for, then they are given information and Denise talks to them about it.

"They are given the opportunity to participate in them or not, but it does not affect their clinical care.

"Patients are looked after in clinical trials by the same people as they are for care generally and I think that is reassuring for people.

"We have got the facilities here, the IV suite and we have got the back-up of the rest if the hospital if there are any problems and that is reassuring for people. The next few years look very promising."

Brams fundraising manager Shaun McCarthy, who has MS himself, is based in the centre's waiting area.

"It gives a lot of hope to people with MS," he said.

Professor of clinical neurosciences Neil Scolding, who has been involved in developing a pioneering stem cell treatment for MS that could repair the damage caused by the condition, has been involved with the project since its early days.

"Our research would just about be possible without the centre but it would be difficult," he said.

"And to have all the experts we have got here with all the specialist nurses and doctors and administrative support as well.

"The other powerful thing is all our fundraising is brought together in the centre and that is highly important."

Ms Owen said: "I think the MS population got quite behind us when they didn't see anything happening.

"It takes research trials an awfully long time and people were wondering whether anything would happen for them. I think they have got behind us because it's positive and feel that things have changed."

Mr McCarthy said: "From my personal experience, not having to stay in hospital makes a big difference for patients. This centre has made a big difference to people. I talk to a lot of people at my desk in reception and they are pleased to come here. No one wants to have to need to come here but they would rather this than the main hospital where they used to go."

His job continues to help with the funding of further research into MS and some of the positions at the centre.

Dr Inglis said: "I think it shows how well a charity can work with the NHS and the trust to benefit patients.

"The expansion in outpatient productivity and intravenous infusions has only been able to come about because of that. We have been able to take on more staff and that makes a big difference. We have been overwhelmed by results the service has had and how people who use it have found it. They have told us we are improving things and that feedback is brilliant."

The plan is for the centre to move to its new home on the Southmead Hospital site in 2014 when other hospital services move from Frenchay Hospital, as had been anticipated when the centre was first set up.

"For the next couple of years until 2014 we are here and all the neurosciences are here so that is fine," Prof Scolding said.

"We are very optimistic that working with the trust we will be able to rebuild something small, or maybe even larger and better at the new Southmead. We will not be staying here because we need access to various hospital facilities and we are looking forward to that move."

For more information about Brams, visit www.brams.org.uk.

JOE'S STORY

Joe Page was diagnosed with MS in 2004. The 39-year-old has the relapsing and remitting form of the condition, where symptoms tend to appear for a period of time before ceasing, but then return again. He had been suffering about four relapses a year, which combined with getting over the attacks, meant it was taking up a considerable amount of his time and affecting his life.

Mr Page, of Weston-super-Mare, said: "It was a complete nightmare as I am studying to become a counsellor."

But he is now on an intravenous drug, which he receives once a month at the Brams centre, and has so far seen an end to the relapses.

"Now I can look after my little boy and it gives me the opportunity to do these things I couldn't do otherwise," he said. "It is really good and has been really beneficial."

Before the centre opened Mr Page would attend appointments at the neurology outpatients department.

"This has been set up especially for us and everyone in this room is dealing with MS as well and we can talk about it. And the staff are good."