Ruby Walk to D’Feet MND

Awareness, Fun Event, Fund Raising, Uncategorized

Can you WALK for 40 minutes and can you raise £40 sponsorship?

If the answer is yes to both please join us in Canterbury on Sunday 6th October. The venue is Lifestyle Fitness, Canterbury Campus, Knight Avenue, Canterbury, CT2 QA and the time is 2pm.

This year is the 40th anniversary of the Motor Neurone Disease Association. To mark this event Brian Sackett and his sister Hilary Smith are organising a Ruby Walk to D’Feet. Both Brian and Hilary lost partners to MND, so it is a subject very close to their hearts.

Hilary Smith and Brian Sackett

Registration details are shown below, if you register on the web site, you will be sent an electronic sponsorship form which you can print, if you chose to register with Brian Sackett he will send you a sponsorship form.

Every sponsored walker will receive an MNDA tee shirt and upon completing the 40 minutes, you will receive a souvenir medallion of the day.

You can register for our walk at http://mnda-eastkent.org.uk/rubywalk

You may donate to the Ruby Walk to D’Feet MND at https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/rubywalk2019 all monies donated will be used to support people living with MND in East Kent or to contribute towards research for a cure.

Brian and Hilary gave an interview to Kent On Line. It is very moving and worth a read. https://www.kentonline.co.uk/canterbury/news/i-thought-it-can-t-strike-our-family-again-how-wrong-was-i-210322/ this link also takes you to the KMTV interview.

Joe Shaves Head For MNDA

Fund Raising, Thanks

Joseph (Joe) Taylor a scaffolder from Deal, was enjoying some drinks with friends in The Farrier, Deal.

Joe Taylor

His friends tried to get him to shave his head and jovially offered to pay him to do so.

Joe decided to go ahead and have his hair shaved off, but insisted it was done for charity.

The charity Joe chose was the Motor Neurone Disease Association in memory of his Grandmother who died from Motor Neurone Disease.

Joe’s head was shaved at the end of May, donations were made by Friends, Family, Customers of The Farrier and colleagues at All Access Scaffolding in Margate.

The total raised was £300 and this was presented to Clive Hudson, Chairman of the East Kent Branch of MNDA.  The money will be used to support people living with MND in East Kent.

MNDA East Kent would like to thank Joe, his family and friends, customers at the Farrier and colleagues at All Access Scaffolding for their generosity. ff

Coastal Walk to D’Feet MND

Awareness, Fun Event, Fund Raising

The third Coastal walk to D’Feet MND took place on Saturday May 18th.  There were three walk options.

  1. A long walk (approx. 24 miles) Whitstable to Broadstairs.
  2. A medium length walk (approx. 13 miles) Minnis Bay to Broadstairs.
  3. A short walk (approx. 6 miles) Margate to Broadstairs.
Walkers at the Margate Start Point

Some 60 walkers walked on the day.  The weather was fair and the walk most enjoyable.  The walkers from Whitstable started at 7.30 am, those from Minnis Bay at 11.30 and the final group from Margate at 1.30pm

All walkers finished at the Wrotham Arms, Ramsgate Road, Broadstairs, between 2 and 4.30pm. Medallions were presented to all walkers who completed their walk. 

The Finish Line

Adrian Powell made a brief speech of thanks to all walkers, the organisers and of course our sponsors.

Refreshments were provided by the Wrotham Arms and excellent they were, thanks to Jackie and her team at the Wrotham Arms.  Soothing drinks were also enjoyed from the bar.

As of June 12th, the Walk has raised £6,500 including gift aid.  A fantastic result which means over 3 years we have raised over £25,000 to support people living with MND in East Kent and contribute towards research for a cure for this devastating disease.

As a direct result of our walk in 2018, MNDA East Kent have been able to fund the purchasing of a piece of equipment to allow the respiratory nurse to be mobile in the MND clinic at William Harvey Hospital in Ashford. This will make life much easier for patients with MND visiting the clinic.

We will be announcing details of installation on our web site, when the equipment is installed.

Huge thanks to our sponsors Greenwich Kitchens and Premier Signs and Graphics; to The Wrotham Arms; to all walkers; to everyone who collected sponsorship, and everyone who gave generously.

Thank you, Wrotham Arms.

Fun Event, Fund Raising

The Wrotham Arms in Broadstairs has been a fantastic supporter of MNDA East Kent for several years.

The Wired New Year’s Day Jam, which featured many local musicians, and prizes donated by various people, with a special mention to Hornby for their generous donation, raised the fabulous sum of £960.30.  The main contributor being the raffle, but also sales of the Fairholt album and some £70 from the collection box.

Raffle Prizes

More recently on 14th April Lodestone, Flame Pilots and Spyplane played in the afternoon.  Ben Mills and Robert Jarvis performed in the evening, great fun was had, and a raffle raised some £310.00.

Flame Pilots

The Wrotham arms has now raised over £6,000.00 for MNDA East Kent, since the 1st Jan 2016. Thanks to Jackie and her staff at the Wrotham Arms, thanks to all the musicians who have played at various functions, thank to all organisers and finally thanks to all the customers at the Wrotham Arms for their generosity over the past few years.

Saltwood Boxing Day Fun Run 2018

Awareness, Fun Event, Fund Raising, Thanks

The Saltwood Run has been held for many years on Boxing Day.  Large numbers of runners turn out to run off some of the Christmas dinner.

North Kent MNDA have been a recipient of funds from the run for many years.  We have received a cheque for £2,500.00 from funds raised at the 2018 run.

Thanks to Ross Sansom and the team organising the Saltwood Run and to all the runners who efforts over many years have raised substantial funds to support people living with MND in East Kent.

Many thanks also to the Members of Rotary Club of The Channel for their continuing support over many years.  We received a cheque for £250 for the run in 2018.

Huge thanks to everyone involved in the Fun Run:  The Runners, Ross Sansom and his team, Rotary Club of The Channel and everyone who donated. People living with MND in East Kent and MNDA East Kent are very grateful for your continuing support.

We Care Campaign wins national campaigning award from UK Parliament

Awareness, Campaigns, Carer's Corner, Volunteering

On Tuesday 2nd April, Katy Styles and the We Care Campaign team arrived at Westminster to collect the UK Parliament’s Digital Campaigner of the Year.

2019 marks the second year of the Your UK Parliament awards. The winning entries were chosen by the Speaker of the House of Commons, and a judging panel of MPs, Peers and independent judges. All of the winners attended an awards ceremony hosted by the Speaker in the Houses of Parliament.

The Rt. Hon John Bercow, Speaker of the House of Commons, said:

Katy Styles ©UK Parliament_Mark Duffy

“There is nothing more inspiring than hearing how these winners used so many innovative ways to get people more involved and connected with UK Parliament. This year’s awards have shone a light on this amazing work – and will hopefully encourage others to join the campaign.”

We Care Campaign is an ongoing campaign to get a better deal for the UK’s 7 million unpaid carers. It is led by carers, for carers. Carers are a hard to reach group as they often feel too tired, too isolated and disempowered to take part in campaigning.

We Care undertook 3 digital activities. Katy ran an e-petition calling on government to publish a Carers’ Strategy. The petition obtained 2,124 signatures. We Care also encouraged unpaid carers to take part in a twitter #AsktheMinister question session to the Minister for Social Care, Caroline Dinenage. We then used our own @WeAreCarers account to host Barbara Keeley, the Shadow Minister, enabling carers to ask more than one politician the same questions during Carers Week. We Care organised a Valuing Carers digital event where decision makers, carers and the cared for posted messages of support for unpaid carers during Carers Rights Day.

We Care Team with Mr Speaker Bercow ©UK Parliament_Mark Duffy

We Care Campaign’s activities made a massive difference and impact on our target audience of unpaid carers who took part in our campaign actions. Individual carers took part in digital actions which helped organise a real grassroots campaign. We Care worked hard to utilise every contact made, by replying to every single contact individually. An unpaid carer speaking of one of our digital takeovers said, “Normally we get a bit of cake and bunting for Carers Rights Day. This is so much more than that. It’s not been done before.” We equally made an impact on individual decision makers, within parliament and beyond and have built a strong network, enabling us to reach more carers in 2019.

Katy Styles who led the campaign said,

“We Care want to thank you so much for a special day in Parliament. Engaging with Parliament at this time in a positive way has never been so important and we have loved playing a small part in this.” fff

Thanks, Beyond the Valley Travel

Fund Raising, Thanks

Beyond the Valley Travel is a not for profit organiser of travel for members in the Elham Valley.

Jenny Barling who sadly died of MND in late 2017 organised the travel events for many years and was a very popular figure.

Upon her death David and Surian Tamsitt took over, continuing Jenny’s excellent work in previous years.

During the period since Jenny died the group have held many events and at these event raffles were held in memory of Jenny.

Surian Tamsitt presenting cheque to Clive Hudson, Chair MNDA East Kent

This culminated in Mid-April with the presentation of a cheque for £1,100.00 to MNDA East Kent to be used for the support of people living with MND in East Kent.

Members of Beyond the Valley Travel at the cheque presentation.

MNDA East Kent would like to thank David, Surian and all the members of Beyond the Valley Travel for their generosity.  Huge thanks to you all. fff

A thoroughly enjoyable Spring Lunch

Carer's Corner, Fun Event, General Support

East Kent MNDA Group help their annual Spring Lunch on Saturday 27th April at the Yarrow Hotel, Broadstairs.

There were 36 diners and we all enjoyed a well prepared and presented 3 course meal by the staff of the Yarrow Hotel.  The food was excellent and heartily enjoyed by everyone present.

Diners at the Spring Lunch 2019

We had the honour of having Richard Coleman, the Chairman of our Board of Trustees as our guest.  Richard gave a short speech about the history of the association and where it is going in the future, which was very well received.

Richard made presentation to Katy Styles and Clive Hudson for service to the association.

We had been donated a 4 Ball Golf Prize for Goodwood and we duly auctioned this.  Pat McCabe won the bidding with a donation of £100.00.

Adrian Powell made an impassioned plea for diners to either join our walk to D’Feet MND on May 18th or get their friends to do so. See www.mnda-eastkent.org.uk/walk19

We ended with a raffle, which is always fun.  It is a joy to watch the anticipation of our young diners. Thanks to all our members who contributed prizes.

Our amazing raffle

Thanks to everyone for coming and special thanks to the staff and management of the Yarrow Hotel, who made us feel very welcome. f

Scrap Six Months

Campaigns

Below is a short animation film showing why it is important to persuade the government to scrap the six month time limit for people with MND and other terminal illnesses before they can access benefits.

Ten people die every day while waiting for a decision on their benefit claim.

The ‘Scrap 6 Months’ animation films are inspired by real stories and facts. The characters, however, are fictitious and do not depict real people either living or dead.

Jack’s MND Story