My challenge

Hello, my name is Kathryn Thomason and on August 26th I will be swimming across The Solent to The Isle of Wight to raise money for clinical research into Motor Neurone Disease (MND, also known as ALS) and for community equipment to help those suffering from the disease. (The MNDA will direct 50% of your donations to SITraN and 50% to the Hull and East Riding support centre, more about this is explained below). To make it more interesting, I’ve spoken to the Hampshire branch of the Girl-Eating Shark Conservation Society and they’ve agreed to stop feeding the sharks for the week prior to my swim. This means they’ll be extra hungry so I’ll need to swim extra fast. The more I raise, the happier I’ll be knowing that I’m making a difference. And we all know, 50% of the time, happier swimmers swim faster, all of the time.

Please help me hit my fundraising goal and let’s raise as much money as possible to help in the fight to find a cure for this terrible disease and to provide care for the approximately 5000 people living with the condition in the UK. You can read more about the disease, how specifically your money will be spent, and my personal story below.

The Disease

MND is a progressive and currently incurable disease that causes progressive paralysis of the body. Sufferers typically die within three to five years of diagnosis. Imagine quickly losing your ability to walk, talk, eat and – eventually – breathe. This is the reality of people living with the disease and it is more common than you think. Your risk of having MND over your lifetime is around 1 in 400 yet we currently have no cure and much of the day to day patient support is provided by charitable organisations like the Motor Neurone Disease Association (MNDA), a body that relies almost entirely on donations and volunteers.

What Your Money Will Do

The Motor Neurone Disease Association (MNDA) is the only national charity in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland focused on MND care, research and campaigning. I will be donating the money I raise to them in order to help fund two different parts of their mandate in concrete ways so that you will know the effects of your generosity. 

The first is research, half the money I raise will be given by the MNDA to the Sheffield Institute for Translational Neuroscience (SITraN). SITraN is based in the University of Sheffield and is headed by Dame Professor Pamela Shaw (a world expert in MND and a very amazing lady) and is at the forefront of global research into MND. I want this
portion of the money I raise to go towards something tangible, towards contributing (in however small a way) to the giant jigsaw that needs to be completed if we are to find a cure for this disease. This is why I will contribute towards funding a PhD thesis at the cutting edge of research into MND. It might be to help a researcher figure out the role of specific proteins in damaging our neurons. Or to figure out exactly how to measure the role of oxidative stress in causing the disease (yes, that’s right, they think that things some
of us do every day like exercise and smoking, if you have the right genetic make up, may cause MND). I have spoken to the MNDA and SITran and they have assured me that my contribution will go directly towards funding this kind of much needed research. They might not be able to fund that PhD otherwise. Who knows, that might be the piece of the jigsaw that is a tipping point; that allows us to have that ‘eureka’ moment

The Hull and East Riding branch of the MNDA provides support to people living with the disease and their families in my local area. It hosts biweekly meetings to help people with the condition make
adjustments (both emotional and practical) when coming to terms with living with a terminal illness that will change their lives immensely. You can read about some people’s experiences of living with the disease and the good work the MNDA does here. The MNDA relies almost exclusively on volunteers and donations and your money can make a real contribution to their efforts to help people going through a very difficult period in their lives live just that little bit easier. So the other half of the money I raise will go there, to help local people who I will be meeting before and after my swim. I will be
hoping to share their stories with you so you can see the good work that your kind donations are helping to do.

My Story

Sadly, a close family member of mine has been diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease. When I found this out I was shocked. But really, I shouldn’t have been. It affects many more people than you might think. Around 5000 people are living with the condition at any one time in the UK but your lifetime risk of having the disease is around 1 in 400. Trust me, the maths make sense. You won’t meet many people with the disease because of the associated short life expectancy but if your life was one week long you would have the same chance of getting the disease as 4 numbers in the lottery. I don’t know about you, but I think I’m going to win the lottery every week!

Due to its rarity there is a distinct lack of awareness and funding. Awareness has dramatically risen since the recent “Ice bucket challenge” campaign but the groups working to help people with the disease and who are researching for a cure need constant funding to be able to do their good work.

A few months ago my dear Mother saw an advert for a Solent Swim to raise money to fight MND. She sent me the link and asked me if she thought I could do it. I said yes I think so! Yet she still has reservations! I love to swim and compete as a triathlete but I have always been a bit scared of lake monsters, the deep dark ocean and the cold. I remember once having a melt down after being attacked by a flower pot in the warm clear waters in Greece. But, I thought, what a great challenge and an even better cause. I had to wait for a place as there was so much interest but thankfully I was contacted to swim.

A few weeks later the race organiser asked me to choose whether I wanted to swim to or from the Isle of Wight. With my lack of UK geographical knowledge, I thought I’d ask my Mum to choose. I gave her a call and her reaction was “Oh gosh I didn’t think you’d have to swim all the way across, I thought it was just a dip in the bay!” Thanks Mum! So I decided to swim from Stokes Bay to Ryde as I thought it would be quite cool to "leave" England and swim to an island.… Embarrassing and much to my crew's dismay… Despite sailing for 1000s of miles in my yachting career, I have never been.

I’ve been training hard and passed the 5km fitness test in my local pool with lots of “Orange Army” (Humber Triathletes, my fabulous local triathlon club) and family support. Finally, it’s just about warm enough for me to train in the lake and sea and get me ready for the event.

The swim should be around 3 miles if I navigate correctly and overcome the strong tides. But I’m not a very good navigator and I’m not very strong. So, I’m at least hoping to arrive in Ryde at some point ready for the promised party!

I am so grateful that you are reading this story and really hope that you will support me in this challenge to contribute to finding a cure for this degenerative disease and to helping the people living with it. I will be wearing wrist bands on the day for warriors and angels (people living with MND now and people who have sadly passed away). If anyone reading this story would like me to wear a wrist band for someone they know or have lost, then please contact me and I will carry the wristband for that person during my swim and then post a wristband and a certificate to you or to them.

I will be updating this page regularly with my training and fundraising ideas. I will also be regularly swimming in lakes and the tropical North Sea if anyone would care to join me! Last week I braved Fraisthorpe with some other crazy friends in just my swimming costume and only got a few strange looks. 

I’ve heard this is a rather gruelling swim and I really hope it will be part of training for my dream to one-day swim the Channel (for the MNDA of course)!

Thank you for reading and thank you to the organisers who have made this swim possible!

Kathryn

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