The MND Association's fundraising has been hit very hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. At a time when people living with MND are even more vulnerable than ever, and demand for our services increase,  fundraising events have been cancelled leading to a expected loss of £3.5 million to £5.5 million for this essential service.

We cannot simply furlough all our staff because we need them to help people with MND. We don't want to delay or cancel research when we are making such good progress towards a treatment for this incurable and fatal disease. So we need to find new sources of funds.

Normally, I'd be using my 30 minutes of exercise to pound the streets and would have taken on a running challenge. However, injury means I just can't do that now. 

So, I've exercised the creative juices instead and have a plan. I know the MND Association has a good following among sports men and women. Sadly too many sportsmen and sportswomen both professional and amateur, previously exceptionally fit, find themselves suddenly hit by this horrific life-limiting and fast moving disease. 

So I will be asking the footballers , rugby players and others to support people living with MND, by sending me a signed sports shirt. As the idea of 2.6 is based on the 26 miles we wont be running in this year's London Marathon, as a minimum, I hope to get a signed shirt for each squad number between 1 and 26 for team sports. Football, Rugby immediately spring to mind but I'd love to hear from others too - Hockey, Netball etc, as long as there is a squad number on the shirt.

At the end of the exercise I will auction them for the maximum value and give all proceeds to the MND Association.

Now I know I wont be sweating in lycra to raise this money. But I will be sweating as I approach sports stars across the UK (and maybe further afield) to support us. So do please donate as it will encourage me to keep going. 

All the directors of the Association are fundraising in the 2.6 challenge - so do support us as a team if you prefer. You can find us all here 

https://www.justgiving.com/team/DTMNDAssociation?invite=true

If you have a shirt to send me - please send to me at MND Association, Francis Crick House, Summerhouse Road, Northampton NN3 6BJ

And of course if you happen to for example live next door to John Terry (famous wearer of number 26) do put in a word for me ;-)