Joy is a Mother, wife and Grandmother to Douglas and Hugo. 

Joy has worked extremely hard all of her life and for the last 10+ years she's worked tirelessly as her own boss - head chef at her family owned restaurant - often working in excess of 100 hours a week putting every effort into making other people's leisure time, time they spend with their friends and families, as perfect as can be.

Then, out-of-the-blue, Joy was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease (MND) in September 2014. 

Her life was flipped upside down and the disease took hold, slowly at first but then in huge, unrelenting steps. she's been unable to work for months, she can't talk and she can't move. She's effectively locked-in and can't even hold her grandchildren.

MND is untreatable and Joy's life expectancy is now measured in weeks and months and she needs 24/7 care and support.

I’m running the Great Birmingham Run 2015 for Joy Waddingham; my Mother-in-Law - and I want to raise awareness and funds for the Motor Neurone Disease Association. So I'm running 13.1 miles on the 18th of October 2015. 

Joy will be 57 years young by the time we complete this run. 

I will be joined on this run by some colleagues - Matt Priddy, Mireille Wathes and Kristiana Briede and I'd like to thank them for their support and efforts in their training. Mireille and Matt only started running because of this race - having never run before. So thank you.

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Thank You.