Jenny Final Day Interview- Motor Neurone Disease Awareness week UK

Here in the U.K. it is Motor Neurone Disease Awareness week, please help if you can by donating and purchasing one of our bands to help promote awareness of this dreadful disease and help increase funding to enable more research- they cost £2.50 each, all of which goes to the MNDA.

Here are a few reminders about why we need this research.

5 people die everyday in the UK from MND
50% within 14 months of diagnosis
MND is a rapidly progressive , fatal disease that can affect any adult at any time-there is currently no cure and there is no treatment-only palliative care.
MND leaves people unable to walk,talk or feed themselves but their intellect and senses usually remain unaffected.
Sufferers can still think and feel but their bodies refuse to work.
Its a commonly held misconception that MND is a inherited disease infact only 5-10 % of all MND victims have a familial history of the disease.The simple truth is that to date no one knows what causes MND.

Below is a video of MND sufferer Jenny Green[ wearing one of our bands]- after finishing her Paris to London Tramper challenge ,there are some lovely pictures on her blog of the gorgeous French countryside and wildlife she encountered on her travels -if you get a moment please pop over and have a look-she writes a wonderful blog full of humour and has a wonderful supportive family-her two sons cycled along side her for morale support with her husband driving the support truck-one of her sons on the first day streaked past Jenny on his bicycle naked as the day he was born-Jenny laughs I haven`t seen that much of him in 30 years !! [no pictures of that I`m afraid !!] You can donate and visit Jennys blog at The Jenny Green Tribute Fund.

We have made our target !!!

What a fantastic day we had yesterday at Tim and Ann`s open garden day for MND , not only was the weather brilliant but we had a fantastic turn out of people, who all came along to support our cause and enjoy the day ! I must admit I was a little worried when I turned up to lend a hand an hour or so before we were due to open-to find so much needed to be done-having said that I needn`t have worried. I guess our family have a few of these type of do`s under our belt now [ thanks to my brother John, who has opened his allotment for the last 3 years running, and Ann and Tim who are use to putting on the car and flower shows!! ] so we all buckled down on got on with our alloted tasks- I had to smile to myself-our family makes a formidable team !! John and Chris arrived not long after I did,Chris helped Tim set up the gazebo at the main entrance and within minutes it was up and decorated with balloons and bunting- while John helped set up the cake table-Aunty Judy arrived and started buttering the Barabrith-while I did the scones, hubby Ned rolled up his sleeves and was put in charge of the washing up [his hands have never been so clean !! he`s a mechanic by the way ! ] with help from his chief assistants Ellie and Tracie who were collecting and drying crockery.
We managed to stop and have a quick photo call [ L-R Ned,Ann, Aunty Judy and John ] The cakes looked lovely set out on the table - Ann used all of her beautiful and freshly laundered antique lace tablecloths- The cakes were homemade and presented on vintage cake stands-it all looked wonderfully old fashioned

L-R Tim,me,Judy and John

A big thank you to everyone who made us a cake ! we got through 17 of them altogether,a special thank you to Delyth who lost her mum to MND a couple of weeks ago but stopped by Saturday night with a yummy chocolate cake-on hearing we were panicking a bit as to whether or not we had enough [Ann and I were baking until half past ten that night ] she called in Sunday morning with an extra one for us -you are a star Delyth !! thank you !
It was then time to set up the plant stall-Ann made some wonderful strawberry jam with fresh strawberries and homemade marmalade which sold out immediately-John brought some of his free range eggs to sell.
The plants donated by Robert Kingdom [Jacksons nurseries, Trelawnydd. ] looked wonderful .
I just about had enough time to take some photographs of the garden before our guests started arriving..It looked lovely-all of Ann and Tims hard work had really paid off, they really know how to do things well..
It was a lovely atmosphere-one of my sisters friends Ann Jones who came along with her husband has known Andrew for years, wanted to do something to help- so she made up a basket of fruit ,all beautifully wrapped in cellophane with a big bow and proceeded to go round everyone asking them to play guess the weight-she charged everyone a £1 a go-Brilliant idea don`t you think ?
Lots of people sat and relaxed and enjoyed the sunshine- for an extra £3 they had the option of a glass of Pimms with lots of ice , fresh fruit and mint out of the garden. At one point we had over 100 people milling about !! we were rushed off our feet !!
We had to send someone out mid- afternoon to get us some more milk !! Apart from that one hitch it all went very smoothly [Thanks Bill by the way for coming to the rescue !! ] Ann manned the plant sale in the gazebo before her friend Pauline kindly offered to take over for a while allowing Ann to mingle and greet people -while Tim and Chris manned the gate and sold raffle tickets.
Much later after everything was tidied up and packed away we sat in the conservatory and enjoyed a glass of wine while we sat and chatted and counted up the money-we had over £100 in donations to start with from people who said, as it was fathers day they had already made plans for the day so were unable to attend but wanted to support our cause ! We played the usual guess how much money is on the floor game-I was way out !!
I couldn`t quite believe how much we had raised a fantastic £973.00 !!!
Ann couldn`t quite believe it either-she woke up early this morning, worrying that she had miscounted the money somehow -she decided to have a re-count at 7am in the morning sitting up in bed with a cup of tea ! Nope ! it was correct ! In fact we have had a few more donations arriving throughout the day now making our total over £1000.00 which means our grand total is well over our ten thousand pounds target- [ £ 10,165.00] Hmm ! time to up that now -don`t you think ?
A huge thank you to everyone who came along on the day and supported us-we were overwhelmed and very touched with the kindness and generosity shown by everyone and I can`t begin to tell you how much we appreciated it !

Tim and Ann`s Garden open

My sister Ann and husband Tim are opening up their garden this coming weekend -Sunday 19th June to raise funds for Motor Neurone Disease, if you live in the Prestatyn area and would like to come and support us -please pop in to see Ann or myself at Bonneamie or The Bon High street , Prestatyn. Her garden is open by invitation only and we have a limited number of places left, her garden is full of mature trees and shrubs and there are lots of lovely vistas to enjoy, they have been both working very hard to make sure everything is at its best ! We are charging £3 .00 entry and you get a wonderful cup of tea and a slice of homemade cake included in the price [what a bargain ] there will be homemade jams, a plant stall- Robert Kingdom owner of Jackson`s Nurseries ,Trelawnyd has very generously donated a fantastic selection of plants and herbs for us to sell - Oh ! and not forgetting- some of my brothers lovely free range eggs will be available to buy !! Gates open 2-5pm
Well I`m off to try out a new cake recipe-watch this space !

A lovely surprise

Its always a nice surprise in the mornings after checking my emails to find that someone has left us a donation and a request for some bands-so last week it was even lovelier to receive a donation out of the blue from someone I hadn`t heard from, for a while- and a very handsome donation to boot at that ....... £100.00 !! A very special thank you to Dave Spragg !! Dave took some wristbands from me last year to sell and a little collecting box-not bad for 20 bands he wrote in his email !!! Absolutely brilliant I say Dave , Well done !!!- Dave who loves walking- took part in Mike Peter`s Snowdon rocks last August and is in the above picture- Andrew went along to support Mike`s Love Hope Strength Cancer Charity and walked down Snowdon to raise awareness and funds for Leukemia, Mike very generously agreed to stop and have some photographs taken for MND- in this photograph is Andrews son Jonathan[second from left] Mike Peters, Andrew ,brother in law Tim [it was his birthday that day !!] and Dave Spragg-That same evening there was a wonderful Alarm concert at Rhuddlan castle where Andrew was teching for Mike, it was a lovely evening and I will never forget the wonderful sunset as we were leaving-Tim said it was the best birthday he had ever had !!

Car Booting !

A couple of weeks ago some friends of Andrew`s [Gaz and Annie ] were determined to find a way to help and to give our fundraising a little bit of a boost. They came up with the idea of de-cluttering their lives and making a bit of money by getting rid of some unwanted items at our local car boot!. There to give a hand was Annie`s son Joe who has done a little bit of charity work before- with banner and buckets at the ready they set off 7.30 am on a damp Sunday morning[ no mean feat getting Gaz out of bed that early-laughs Annie ] to set up a stall at our largest car boot sale in this area - at Sainsburys roundabout , Rhuddlan. I must give a mention and a special thank you to brothers Jacob and Issac Jones who were very generous in donating some of their toys -Jacob [who is only 10years old ] has raised quite a bit of money for the British heart Foundation-according to Joe - Jacob`s Dr Who toys were a sell out and it was those toys that raised the most money for our cause !
At around 10am it poured down with rain- so we reduced everything to a £1 or half price and by half ten we were on our way home- laughs Joe ! The picture above is of Joe proudly wearing his supporters MND band- after counting up the money he helped raised ! The car boot sale made a fabulous £115 for the MNDA -that takes some doing !! Well done guys-Andrew was delighted !!
We will get some certificates printed up for your school portfolios .