Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

I'm not one for New Years resolutions but this year I finally made one. I will be spending 2018(and beyond depending how long it takes me) raising money for The Multiple System Atrophy Trust to try and help to combat the thing that took my mums life in 2010. MSA is an adult-onset, sporadic, rapidly progressive, multisystem, neurodegenerative fatal disease of undetermined current reasons.

a very rare nervous system disorder where nerve cells in several parts of the brain deteriorate over time.  It very often is misdiagnosed as Parkinsons disease and can take upto and beyond 5 years to properly diagnose. This means that as it is such a rare thing that they always miss the chance to do research into the early onset of it patients. There is no cure, the treatments are minimal currently and they only really treat the Parkinsons type symptoms. In laymans terms, it slowly shuts the body down at first before a very rapid onset towards the end where the neurological ability to control breathing is also lost. I will post several links below for anyone wanting to read more indepth explanations on this.
As it is a very rare condition, this means that very little funding comes its way and a large part is raised by family members of those who suffered through it. Like with other illness's a cure is the ultimate goal but just to be able to do vital research into finding ways to make it a bit more comfortable to deal with would be an advancement.

I will be doing a whole number of things throughout the year to raise money towards my target which I'm hoping will reach at least £2000. These include things such as a 10k inflatable fun run in March, auctioning off several items throughout the year including signed football memorabilia, sponsored walks and a few other ideas I have.

2 things I will be doing though are that if we can raise the entire £2000 then I will donate a further £1000 to take it to £3000 (I'm even prepared to part with my beloved motorcycle to fund it). When the £2000 goal is reached then I will very publicly and for the first time in my life have my head shaved clean and also shave off my beard. To those that know me, I have just turned 40 years old and haven't been without facial hair since the age of 18 (I have a face for radio that I've always felt needs to be hidden). My daughter who turns 20 this year has never seen me without it, my Grandson has never seen me without it, my partner who I've known since I was 20 has never seen me without it, in fact if you haven't known me for at least 22 years then you've never seen me without it. This truly terrifies me more than I can convey in words as weird as it sounds but to help this cause I will do it.

If you have anything you'd like to see me do then I'm open to suggestions, I don't really suffer from embarasment so would consider anything for the right sized donation although please bear in mind that due to certain medical conditions of my own that I physically won't be able to do some things such as bungee jumps/parachute jumps but am open to anything it is possible for me to do.

I'm doing this in memory of my mother, Antonina Polkey. Before her deteriation from MSA, she was an amazing woman who never put herself before anybody. You could scour the world and never hear a bad word uttered about her. She truly was an angel on this planet and taken from her family far too early.

I will be setting up a donations page but am happy to accept most forms of payment and will add it all to the total as it comes in.

For those that don't know me, I was born in Stamford, now the wrong side of 40, father, grandfather, football fanatic and have spent most of the last decade as a full-time carer for my partner. Now after years of wanting to do something for the MSA Trust, I have a little bit of time available currently to try and do something so will try to make the most of it.

I would be eternally grateful for anything you feel you could afford to donate. No amount is too big and no amount is too small, every penny goes towards helping others deal better with the traumatising effects that I had to watch my mum go through.

Thank you for taking the time to read.

Links listed below.

Ben

http://www.msatrust.org.uk/what-is-msa/

https://www.facebook.com/MSATrust1/

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/multiple-system-atrophy/

https://www.ninds.nih.gov/Disorders/Patient-Caregiver-Education/Fact-Sheets/Multiple-System-Atrophy

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiple_system_atrophy

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