A quiz will be held on Thursday November 21st at The Wrotham Arms, Ramsgate Road, Broadstairs, to raise funds for MNDA East Kent. The Quiz will start at 7.30 prompt
MNDA East Kent is looking to enter 2 tables of 6 for the quiz, please email chair@mnda-eastkent.org.uk to book a place.
Entry is £5 per head, nibbles will be provided and teams may bring any extra food they wish.
There will be two games, winners of which will receive a prize. There will also be a raffle.
We look forward to seeing as many supporters turning out to support the Wrotham Arms who have been a fantastic supporter of MNDA East Kent for many years.
The Ruby Walk to D’Feet MND took place in Canterbury on
Sunday 6th October.
Under lowering skies, we hoped for a period without rain and
our prayers were answered and our walk went ahead without a single drop of
rain.
Brian and Hilary
This year is the 40th anniversary of the Motor Neurone
Disease Association. To mark this event Brian Sackett and his sister Hilary
Smith organised the Ruby Walk to D’Feet MND.
Both Brian and Hilary lost partners to MND, so it is a subject very
close to their hearts.
Brian and Hilary hoped that 40 walkers would walk for 40 minutes and raise £40 in sponsorship, a target of £1600.
54 Walkers turned out on the day, walking for 40 minutes
around the athletics track at Lifestyle Fitness in Canterbury, raising the
astonishing sum of £3,113 in sponsorship.
The event started with a group photograph of all the Walkers
by the Kentish Gazette, which we hope will be published in their next edition.
Walkers ready to start
Walkers came from all parts of East Kent and some walkers
travelled from as far as the Isle of Sheppey.
Huge thanks to Brian and Hilary for organising this excellent
event, especially thanks to all 54
walkers who jointly raised £3,113 in sponsorship to date, a fabulous amount
which will be used to support people living with MND in East Kent and to contribute
towards researching a cure for this devastating disease.
We would also like to thank Lifestyle Fitness for allowing us
to use their track and to Kentish Gazette and the KM Group for their support
and especially to everyone who contributed monies towards this great
fund-raising event
If anyone has any sponsorship remaining to be paid, please
send your cheque made out to MNDA East Kent to 171 Percy Avenue, Broadstairs, Kent,
CT10 3LE or alternately to Just Giving at https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/rubywalk2019 If you use the Just Giving Link please
indicate this is sponsor monies for the Ruby Walk.
Anyone wishing to donate can also use the Just Giving link
above.
An excellent conference with a good mix of MNDA staff and
volunteers who had travelled from all parts of the Eastern Region. 2 members of
the East Kent group attended. Although we are in the Southern Region, we
attended this conference as it was much closer than our own regional conference
in Exeter.
The conference was moderated by Richard Coleman the Chairman
of our Trustees. After welcoming us to the meeting, Richard introduced our
first speaker Chris James, Director MND Association.
Chris started by joking about the last time he had visited
Docklands, saying how much more pleasant this experience was compared to
swimming in the docks to raise funds.
Chris then spoke about the Association over the years in
this our 40th anniversary year.
The association was founded by a group of volunteers in 1979,
little can that group have imagined what they would achieve over the next 40
years.
In 1980 the first research project was undertaken, and
research activities have grown to some £16 million currently.
1980 saw the first awareness week and in 1990 the first
International Symposium was held in Birmingham with just 35 delegates, in
Glasgow there were over 1300 delegates. Quite an astonishing achievement.
The MND Care Centre was opened in 1993, there are now 22
around the country. Sadly we do ot have
such a facility in Kent. This must change.
The All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on MND was formed
in 2002, this parliamentary body is very influential and an important point of
contact between the association and our law makers.
The ice bucket challenge in 2014 was not only a spectacular
fund raiser but the more lasting legacy of the event is the greatly increased
awareness of MND which has helped in fund raising ever since and will help long
into the future.
The NICE guidelines on the treatment of MND were introduced
in 2016. At last a guide to what is good
treatment and service for people living with MND, the ground breaking document
was as a direct result of campaigning over many years by the association.
In 2018 we lost one of our staunchest supporters, Professor
Stephen Hawking. The remarkable man
raised substantial sums for the association during his life and in death the
auction of his wheelchair raised a whopping £290,000 for the association.
Now at the present in 2019 we are celebrating our 40th
anniversary and much has happened since that inaugural meeting in 1979.
Our next speaker was Alex Massey, policy manager MNDA, who
talked about Campaigning for change.
Two major areas were covered in a very short time.
Scrap 6 Months.
Currently the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) are governed
by a rule that states that fast tracking for benefits can only be allowed where
a person has in the opinion of his clinician less than 6 months to live.
Since DWP assessors have no knowledge of MND, This haS led
to the appalling situation where people living with MND have not been granted
benefits and in some cases have been expected to retrain for other work.
Our Association has determined to get this law changed. To
achieve this there have been many strands of activity.
A petition with 55,000 signatures was handed into 10 Downing
Street requesting the scrapping of the 6-month rule.
The team from MNDA delivering the petition to 10 Downing Street
Two things have subsequently happened which give great hope
for the future, firstly the DWP have reviewed guidance to assessors which has
made the system more accessible, secondly a review of the benefits system has
been ordered and we hope this will lead to the scrapping of the 6 month rule
for all terminally ill persons.
This campaign involves adaptive housing for people living
with MND. Adapting accommodation is costly,
time consuming and people need immediate support.
Because of the costs involved local government is often not
keen to act. There are several elements
to a solution:
National Government should:
Commit to ongoing central funding for Disability
Facilities Grants (DFGs)
Review the means test for DFGs
Ensure 10% of all new housing is build to
accessible and adaptable standards
Local Government should:
Implement a fast track, non means tested process
for adaptations under £5000
Provide discretionary support for people with a
terminal illness
The next presentation was by John Gilles Wilkes and he spoke
about what might happen over the next 40 years.
Some of this is near and will happen much is crystal ball gazing and may
or may not happen.
What’s New
Technology has made amazing leaps in the last few years and
many things are rapidly becoming possible including the following:
Voice banking has been made dramatically simpler
by technology and much less time and effort is necessary, than just 2/3 years
ago.
Non invasive ventilation technology has greatly
improved.
Specialist (non-clinical) support will become
available. Such as financial and legal
advice.
Mark Gately from North West Kent Branch spoke
about the activities of his branch and the services they provide to local
people living with MND.
Christian a service user talked about the
service a user might expect from MNDA, including Kings MND clinic, Benefits Advice
Service, Quality of life Grants, Continuing Health Care and Personal Health
Budget (NHS).
The final presentation was a research update by Sadie Vile.
Sadie talked about the research team and how projects to
fund were decided upon.
Research information is provided in many ways, through the
web site, information sheets, Thumbprint, MND research blog and newsletters.
We fund world class research and currently are funding 82 projects. The number of research projects have risen
from 1 in 1980, to 8 in 1996 and to 82 in 2019.
Research Links
Research we fund
For a full portfolio of the research we currently fund
