September is CMT Awareness Month. On Saturday 7 September I have committed to walk not only one mile, but nearly FOUR from The Lock at Wolverley to Caunsall, then back again to help raise funds for awareness and the cure!

What is

Charcot-Marie-Tooth Disease (CMT)?

CMT is a condition that affects the nerves in your legs and arms, known as the peripheral nerves.

These nerves are responsible for passing on commands from your brain to your muscles (motor nerves) and for passing information to the brain about sensations, such as pain, heat, cold and touch (sensory nerves).

Because of the nerve damage, people with CMT may find that some of their muscles become slowly weaker over the years, particularly in their feet and hands. And some people find that their sense of feeling becomes duller, or numb, in the same areas. It can cause foot drop, walking gait, foot bone abnormalities (eg high arches and hammer toes), problems with hand function, balance problems, occasional lower leg and forearm muscle cramping, and loss of some normal reflexes and may cause long-term pain and tiredness.

In the UK, some 25,000 people are thought to have CMT (approx 1:2500) making it the most common inherited neurological condition.

For me, it means that I wobble, get tired and quite often fall over but always with a smile J