Dr Stephen Wright was the guest of honour at the Northern Ireland Lupus Group's AGM in Belfast. From Hillsborough, Dr Wright is a Queen's University Belfast research fellow now working at Musgrave Park Hospital.

Systemic lupus is an incurable illness of the immune system. It involves the body's defence mechanism beginning to attack itself through an excess of antibodies in the blood stream causing inflammation and damage in the joints, muscles and other organs.

Symptoms are wide-ranging and rarely do two sufferers have the same. They can include joint and muscle aches and pains, permanent cheek rash, kidney problems, extreme fatigue and weakness, ulcers, hair loss, depression, flu-like symptoms and more.

Dr Wright explained to the gathering that his work demonstrated that fish oils for patients with lupus may have more than cardiovascular benefits.

"Part of my work was to investigate different aspects of vascular disease (blood vessels) in patients with lupus by studying the function of the cells lining the blood vessels," he said.

"I was able to show that in patients with lupus there was an impaired function that could be improved by Omega-3 fish oils."

Patients taking low doses of Omega-3 fish oil showed improvement in blood vessel function and a reduction in cell damaging molecules.

There was also an improvement in symptoms such as fatigue, joint pain, rashes, mouth ulcers and headaches.

Dr Wright received the Irish Society for Rheumatology's Young Investigator of the Year Award for this research.