Hello all, I entered the marathon this year and apparently someone at Virgin thought it’d be funny to call my bluff and see what I’m made of. If you have a few seconds between laughing fits, please read on and spare a thought for my scrawny little chicken legs that will have to carry my whacking great arse round the streets of London in less than 6 months.

As some of you may know, in 2006 Dad was diagnosed with Multiple System Atrophy (MSA). It is a rare, progressively degenerative neurological disorder that can randomly affect any adult man or woman in their late 50’s to early 60’s. The average remaining lifespan after the onset of symptoms is 8 years, there is no cure, no known cause and no way of prevention.

Sufferers are often mistaken for drunks because balance, speech, and co-ordination are the first to go but it is actually shutting you down one piece at a time from the inside out. Over the course of a few years, skiing, playing golf & coaching county cricket have been exchanged for wheelchairs, catheters and the inability to use a knife and fork. The decline is now such that he now does not want to be seen socially or in public, restricting his minimal time out of the house to a few friends aware of his situation. Full 24 hour care provided by Mum is now essential, rebuilding parts of the house to accommodate their requirements yet he has not once complained about his position.

The MSA Trust is a small charity funded entirely by donations offering support to families and carers. It also funds research into the causes of MSA and has offered both Mum and Dad a wealth of options as time has gone on.

Any of your kind donations will go to the trust so they can continue help those affected and hopefully find out what it is that causes otherwise fit and healthy individuals to succumb so quickly.

If you would like to know more, there are some frank facts and figures on their website. http://www.msatrust.org.uk/

Please bear in mind I don’t like running unless it’s to the pub so please give whatever you can and bask in the knowledge that I’m probably not going to enjoy the next 6 months at all. If you still need convincing as a little incentive, I will do it all in a mankini or equivalent if the target gets hit....I really am that stupid.

Thank you very, very much in advance.

Andy

 

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