I?m Katy Styles and I am the Campaigns Contact for the East Kent Development Group. This means that I take the national campaigns of the Motor Neurone Disease Association and make them come alive here in Kent.

My husband Mark was diagnosed with motor neurone disease (MND) in 2010. Because I?m involved in campaigning he is too. He didn?t have much choice to be honest and he?s excellent at it!

I used to be a geography teacher and I never realised that the skills I picked up teaching would be so helpful campaigning for motor neurone disease. Both involve a study of glaciers.

Glaciers move very very slowly, you don?t notice they are moving at all until one day they have moved all the way down the mountain. Campaigning is very much like that. It moves very very slowly; you are waiting for a reply to a letter or email or trying to arrange a meeting and then eventually someone gets back to you and you are on your way.

The 2014 local election campaign is so important. Local councillors make local decisions. They are sitting in meetings right now discussing local health care, local social services, local housing and transport ? services people with MND need everyday and are important to their lives.

I?ve been involved in the campaign by writing letters to those councillors whose responsibilities include health and wellbeing here in Kent. From writing one letter, Mark and I have been to meetings to discuss what it?s like living with MND and what some of the problems are. This has lead to more discussions and subsequent meetings with other councillors with different responsibilities. The MND Charter has yet to be signed but I see it as a success. Councillors are thinking about and discussing MND, where they weren?t before.

On Saturday 12 April, we are holding an inaugural Spring Lunch at East Kent College and I?ll be there carrying an arm full of councillor postcards and template letters printed for people to send to their councillors ? I want to get as many people as possible writing to their councillors to help make the MND voice heard loud and clear in Kent.

If you have a spare couple of minutes please join the campaign to help raise awareness of MND by writing to your councillors and candidates standing for election ? it?s really easy!

Click on the link to find out more about the 2014 local elections campaign and download the template letters