We are fundraising for a colleague of ours who has been diagnosed with Motor Neuron Disease (MND) at the age of 39. As we want to respect his and his family’s privacy, we are calling him Matthew in his story.

Matthew has worked with us for 13 years and has been a valued colleague and friend. He started to struggle with back ache a few years ago, and this increased in August 2019 when his leg gave in regularly whilst walking. The diagnosis finally came just before his 40th Birthday in February 2020 that he suffers from MND.

The NHS has enlisted him to participate in a Phase 3 Clinical Trial and he has put all hope in this trial as it may result in stopping progress of the disease and maybe even reversing some of the effects he already has. However, COVID-19 has put a stop to this Clinical Trial since March and we are not sure when this will re-open. In the meantime, his condition is deteriorating. He cannot walk more than 50m and the disease is now starting to affect his arms. He requires breathing support at night as his lung muscles are also affected.

Matthew has a young family with 2 boys under the age of 10. He is still shielding as he is worried about contracting COVID-19 as his lungs are already on support.

The only thing Matthew really wants is to get on the Clinical Trial which will hopefully result in an improvement in his condition. We cannot make this happen for him and so we decided, we want to collect for him, which can support a variety of aspects in his life:

• Safe transport to and from the clinical trial unit when this finally starts

• a wheelchair

• adapt his house to make it wheelchair friendly

• savings accounts for his children to ensure they have support

and lots more that is potentially required.

No one has a crystal ball and can tell him how fast things are progressing and we are hoping that we can at least support him emotionally by running various charity events.