Story
<p>Our father passed away on the 4th January 2011. Having suffered with Motor Neurone Disease for over 10 years.<br /><br />This page is now in memory of our father, hoping that one day a cure will be found to this terrible disease. In Memory of our dad, James Brian Oates 1st September 1935 to 4th January 2011.We miss you.</p>
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<p><span style="color: #ff0000;">I completed Virgin's 30th London Marathon in 4hr 19mins :). I also ran the Manchester Bupa 10k in 47:25 for MND. I would like to thank everyone who has donated and helped me reached this target. It's been one hell of a journey, both physically and emotionally. </span></p>
<p><span style="color: #ff0000;">Thank You </span></p>
<p><span style="color: #ff0000;">Ian May 2010</span></p>
<p><strong>Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.</strong><br /><br />I will be running the London marathon on the 25th April in aid of the <a href="http://www.mndassociation.org/"><strong>Motor Neurone Disease Association</strong></a> (MND).<br /><br />This will be my first Marathon and I am aiming to raise over £1,500 for MND and really appreciate your donation.</p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><strong>What is Motor Neurone Disease</strong></span></span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">MND is a progressive incurable disease in which the nerve cells from your brain that control voluntary muscle movement are destroyed. It leaves people unable to walk, talk or feed themselves.</span></span></p>
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<p><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Few disorders are as devastating as MND. Imagine a healthy and alert mind trapped inside a body that can’t move, but can still think and feel.</span></span></p>
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<p><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The MND association provides support for families with MND and hope to one day find a cure through research for this disease. <!--?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /--></span></span></p>
<p><br /><strong>My Father and MND</strong><br />Ten years ago, my father was a fit and healthy carpenter who enjoyed cycling and was looking forward to a healthy retirement.<br /><br />My dad started with the initial symptoms of MND with falling in the street for no apparent reason and suffering from muscle cramps. <br /><br />He was initially misdiagnosed, which led to an unnecessary back operation being performed. But he was eventually diagonsed as having MND. This came to all of us initially as a relief as we now knew what he had, though secondly, the realisation that there is no cure for this disease hit us all extremely hard.<br /><br />Fortunately or unfortunately he has the slower form of MND and over the last 6 years he has slowly deteriorate from using a walking stick, to crunches, to a walking frame and now for the last three years unable to walk at all.<br /><br />Our reality now is that my dad is dependent on a breathing machine around 18 hours a day and if it wasn’t for this machine we would have lost him over 2 years ago. He relies on two carers, morning and evening to get him dressed and at night get him ready for bed.<br /><br />My mum does everything else and is a fantastic support to my dad. <br /><br /><br /><strong>About Me</strong><br />Having never tried running before I took up running 12 months ago at the start of 2009 at the age of 42. I completed my first ½ Marathon in October 2009; at that point I decided to take my new found enthusiasm and run a marathon for charity.<br /><br />It’s easy to see my motivation in running this marathon as I have seen my father deteriate from a fit and healthy man over the years.<br /><br />Running the 26 miles will take a lot of effort and training. I started training in November and over the coming 5 months I will be training four times a week covering over 500 miles in total - that’s equivalent to running from Aberdeen to London!<br /><br /><strong> </strong>Please dig deep and help the Motor Neurone Disease Association by sponsoring me on my journey and hopefully one day we will find a cure for this devastating disease.</p>
<p><strong>Training so far</strong></p>
<p>Nov '09: 72 miles</p>
<p>Dec '09: 42 miles...well it was Christmas!</p>
<p>Jan '10: 96 miles in total</p>
<p>Feb '10: 89 miles.... A poor start lost 15 miles in the first week due to a cold</p>
<p>Mar '10: 105 miles. Including the Wilmslow <span style="color: #000000;">½ Half Marathon 1hr 47mins</span></p>
<p>Apr '10: 55 miles</p>
<p><em>This adds up to 459 miles of training, plus the marathon. Just under 500 miles!!</em></p>
<p><br />Kind Regards<br />Ian Oates<br />Nf6@sky.com<br />December 2009</p>