You can read more about Mandy and continue to support her by visiting her website here: http://www.supportmandy.com

For the last two years my sister Mandy has become housebound because of a genetic illness which is causing the vertebra in her neck to damage her brain stem and spinal cord. She suffers daily from:

- Constant and severe neck, head and shoulder pain caused by spinal instability called Atlantoaxial Instability and Craniocervical Instability
- Heart arrhythmia, tachycardia and irregular blood pressure preventing her from standing
- An array of neurological symptoms such as memory loss, tremors and numbness
- Difficulty regulating body temperature and other autonomic bodily functions due to compression of her brain stem

In order to prevent further damage to her brain stem and try to correct some of the problems she already faces Mandy urgently needs surgery to fuse her skull and top two vertebrae together. This will stop the movement in these bones which are currently compressing her brain stem. This is a very complicated surgery, which involves inserting screws through the bones which protect the spinal cord and brain and is made more complicated in Mandy due to her EDS. There aren't any doctors in the UK who can perform the surgery she needs to fix her neck so she needs to raise £60k to go to Barcelona to have it done there.

Please sponsor me to go over to Barcelona ahead of her to run the Barcelona Marathon in March and raise as much as possible to help her to get there too.