An Event - Fri 13th May

[Daren]

If you have seen my introduction thread, you will know a little about what you are about to read. If you have not seen it, please don't be concerned reading it all. I will give a brief summary here.

6 months ago, I knew nothing about MND. If someone had asked me in the street "What is MND?", I probably would have said "Isn't this something that Stephen Hawkins is suffering from ?" and that would be the lot. Not great, is it.

What you are about to read is a family's story about a young man who died last year. At the time, he was the youngest surviving MND sufferer in the UK, being only 22 yrs old when diagnosed. He died in June 2021 at the age of 23yrs 4 mnths to this cruel illness that many of you are very close to on here.

It was at that point that the omission in my knowledge needed to change. Why did someone who was fit and well die so young ?

I will unfold our event in the next posts but I would like to leave you with this young man's story by his wife and family. Every terminal illness is tragic - MND being right up there with the most serious. You all have a story that is very upsetting as well. But it was this illness - I think though in tandem with the circumstances around the family that are hard to read - that hit me.

That is why a team of 6 of us are organising one of the largest awareness pushes which might turn into a significant fund raiser into research into the illness in May. Between all of us, we are reaching 1000s and 1000s of people. We have Youtubers on board who reach 100,000 people. Not everyone is watching, I realise. But it's not for the want of trying and if 100,000 more people are made more aware of this illness, this cannot be a bad thing.

First, please have a read of this poor chap's story. Thankfully, and possibly uniquely, this did reach the local news because of some circumstances.

[Daren]

Hi Folks - so the plan is this. We hope that we can attract 300 people to our event. That is the potential. It might be a challenge as Fridays are difficult for some.

So Friday 13 May, Santa Pod Drag Strip in Northants, has been purchased by us as a private hire day. If we were to fill up all of the spaces, it would achieve £10,000+ for the Association, above costs and fees.

The attraction on the day is either to race the car up the strip, or to be in a static car show or to spectate. At this time, we have 80 people arriving. This will still provide a healthy £2500-3000 and we still have 2 weeks until the event.

If there is anyone here who is interested, please just click on the link below. Spectator tickets are merely £5.98. But if you or you know someone who might have a vehicle to show or even to race, it will be lovely to see you if you can come along for this spectacle.

But also, as I said above, it is the illness awareness that is equally as important and if a few 1000 more people are aware after May 13th than before May 13th, based on this event, that cannot be bad. 6 of us are really reaching into the social media areas to provide that awareness.

Thank you.

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/gtg-powered-by-auto-linked-tickets-305737528177

[Daren]

Just a quick update. If any of you live in the Bucks, Beds and Herts area, you'll pick up 3 Counties radio. You can also pick it up digitally from further afield.

One of our organising team and mother in law to James - she has a 2:45pm slot tomorrow, Thurs 5th May on the Roberto Perrone show to talk about the illness, what happened to James, the events that have been completed to raise money for MNDA and awareness.

Quite pleased that MND is getting some airtime on a local show that broadcasts across 3 Counties.