On the 5th of October 2025, I will be completing the Cardiff half marathon in memory of my beloved Uncle Steve.

I will be running for the Motor Neurone Disease Association (MNDA), and I would like to tell you a little bit about our story.

Uncle Steve had woken up with slurred speech one morning that had unfortunately started to progress. We were all very worried about what this could be as it was out of the blue.

Sadly, after many months and many different tests on the 10th of January 2024, we had the unfortunate news that he was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease, an absolutely heartbreaking diagnosis for him and our whole family.

By this time, Uncle Steve had completely lost his voice, and his muscles were beginning to deteriorate rapidly. Steve had sadly progressed further and had to live with this awful disease that, after just 10 months of living with MND, our beautiful Uncle very sadly passed away on the 15th of October 2024.

Uncle Steven was the light in our family; his smile was infectious, he was kind-hearted, determined, and a hard-working character; every person that had the pleasure of meeting my uncle would absolutely love and never forget him.

We all were uneducated about MND, but all we did know is that there was no cure. Motor Neurone disease is truly awful; it was absolutely heartbreaking not knowing what to expect and having to see my Uncle deteriorate so quickly with a disease that in the end had heartbreakingly taken his life away from him. Something no one should ever have to experience.

However, throughout his diagnosis, in typical Uncle Steve fashion, he never failed to have a smile on his face and bring joy to us all despite what he was going through.

The MND Association focuses on improving access to care, research and campaigning for those people living with or affected by MND in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

So if you can, please support and help us find a cure so no one else has to go through what our family and many other families have been through.

Thank you.