JK Rowling's MS donation

JK Rowling has donated a "major sum" to fund research into multiplesclerosis - the disease that killed her mother.

The 'Harry Potter' author's undisclosed but "substantial" amount will helpset up a new research centre in Scotland.

She said she hopes the £2.5 million scheme will help scientists find a curefor the debilitating illness, which her mum died of at the age of 45.

JK, who is a patron of Multiple Sclerosis Society Scotland, said: "It means a great deal to me to be able to provide support for this much-neededcentre. It is an exciting step forward."

Earlier this year, the author spoke of her sadness that her mum, Anne,didn't live to see her literary success.

Rowling had been working on stories about the boy wizard before her mother'sdeath, but never revealed the character to her.

She said: "I know I was writing Harry Potter at the moment my mother died. Ihad never told her about him."

She added: "Barely a day goes by when I do not think of her. There would beso much to tell her, impossibly much."

JK - whose imaginative tales have resulted in 300 million book sales and four films - said her mother's death on New Year's Eve in 1990 left her anemotional "wreck".