On the 29th April 2017 I will be jumping out of an aeroplane to raise money for the Multiple Sclerosis (MS) Society. I've always wanted to do a skydive, and finally decided that this is the year I'm going to tick it off my bucket list! I've also managed to convince 4 friends to jump with me, who are also raising money for other great causes, so there is no backing out now... 

All money raised on this Just Giving page will go to the Copeland branch of the MS Society, to help local people affected by MS. 

MS is a condition of the central nervous system, which affects more than 100,000 people in the UK. Once diagnosed, MS stays with you for life; there is no cure yet but treatments can help you to manage the condition and its symptoms.

A substance called myelin protects the nerve fibres in the central nervous system, which helps messages travel quickly and smoothly between the brain and the rest of the body.

In MS, your immune system, which normally helps to fight off infections, mistakes myelin for a foreign body and attacks it. This damages the myelin, disrupting the messages travelling along the nerve fibres – they can slow down, become distorted, or not get through at all. Sometimes this also causes damage to the nerve fibres themselves. This results in a range of symptoms including dizziness, spasms and problems with memory, speech and balance.