Our family`s MND Ice bucket Challenge in Memory of Andrew

 We have completed  The MND Ice Bucket Challenge !! Please donate by Text to ICED55
 [any amount to] 70070 -  every little bit helps ! Or to
                            
http:www.justgiving.com/IceBucket4MND/    

We had great fun doing this ..... To take part all you have to do - is to accept the challenge -post your video onto facebook.....remembering to donate £3.00 [ or whatever you can afford ] -if you refuse the challenge, the idea is then you pay a larger forfeit. ..... Then remember to post your nominations and pass the challenge on..... and of course.have fun raising money and awareness for a great cause !

Wristbands are still available by the way... from  Kerrie on the facebook site....  MND Awareness-Fighting for a cure !  And from http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/161403917144   money raised for the bands goes to the Tony Wheaton MND Tribute Fund Thank you Jan

Bands now back in stock and available from John Saunders

I`am pleased to announce that John Saunders from the blog [  www.jaded-john.net/  ]  has now received his new stock of  motor neurone disease awareness bands to sell.!!
John was diagnosed with MND last October -since then he has been making a super human effort to raise awareness and funds for the MNDA setting himself the target of raising £500 thousand pounds for the cause.
He has made many T.V and Radio interviews and was nominated to be a Olympic torch bearer- [ see the picture above ] carrying  the Olympic flame through his hometown of Wembdon near Bridgewater in what must have been a very proud moment for him and his family.
To find out more about John`s battle with this disease and his fundraising efforts and to support him and the MNDA by purchasing an awareness band -please click on the blue link .http://jaded-john.net/   
 and then on the tab labeled " team optimism "
Bands now also available from Chris Boon`s blog  http://cvmnd.blogspot.com   Chris would like you to send in photographs wearing your bands in funny poses -but asks- please keep it clean !! LOL X

Taking a break....

Back in  June 2010 at a family gathering [ the one pictured above actually ] I remember catching sight of a red wristband Andrew was wearing -turning it over I read " Fighting Lou Gehrig`s Disease "   The ALS Association.
 Andrew had been diagnosed with M.N.D the previous September and by the June his speech had been badly affected -on reading the band I looked up at him-  saying nothing ,we just exchanged smiles.
That night I went on line and tried to buy a band  like Andrew`s to show him my support-no one in the U.K. was stocking them...I did find a site in America but you had to bulk buy them. I mentioned this to Andrew a few days later ...he just smiled nodded in agreement and disappeared for a few moments returning with a bag full of  the bands bought from that same site - Typical of Andrew he was raising awareness in his own quiet way -giving out the bands to his fellow band mates and anyone who noticed his own...........The rest is history as they say !
I`am pleased to say that the MNDA will now be stocking their own bands for awareness month in June and are thinking of stocking them again for next year .......A great result ! Andrew would have been delighted to hear that - So, I`am taking this opportunity to have a  little break from fundraising for a while. I`am so very proud of all my family and of all of Andrew`s friends- his band mates were brilliant- encouraging him to take buckets to all of their gigs ,supporting him -enabling him to keep playing in his band for as long as possible- " Resistance " now has a new drummer and they are still raising money- this time for our local hospice. [ nice one lads ]- Andrew would have approved of that.
To anyone thinking of fundraising -please go for it ! Okay , there is always a few ups and downs [ and I admit- I have had my fair share of tears and tantrums along the way ] but for maybe every one person who lets you down so many more turn up offering help -we have at times been bowled over by the kindness and generosity of complete strangers !
The blog was for Andrew -to show we cared. We shared our ups and downs with him-hamming it up and playing certain things down !! We made him laugh. Thank you to everyone who supported us along the way-for all the lovely comments and words of encouragement, donations , and wonderful photographs you sent in - I can`t tell you how much we appreciated it all. There is not a day goes by when I don`t think of him -he is in my heart - never to be forgotten.
With your help we have raised over £13,000 for the MNDA.

I will leave you with the following details of where to purchase bands from...... The Broad cricketing family www.thebroadappeal.org/

Or contact the MNDA on 0845 6044150

If you have any pictures you would like to send in- please keep doing so and I will continue to keep adding them to this site and to the facebook site . Thank you.... Wishing you all in Andrew`s favourite words..Love Hope Strength  Jan and all the family xxx


GREAT INSPIRATIONAL  BLOGS TO FOLLOW

www.jaded-john.net/
steveevans35.blogspot.com/
deirdre-amonkeyonhisback.blogspot.com/
Hug Me ...I`ve got MND   www.nikkiwoodman.blogspot.com/
jennygreenchallenge.wordpress.com/
mndestroyer.wordpress.com/
seatnexttodad.blogspot.com/
chris-versus-mnd.weebly.com/ 
sarahezekiel.com/ 
shushkat.blogspot.com/
www.motor-neuron.com/

The DIY SOS programme starring Eric [see previous posts ] who is living with MND is being screened on the 16th May  8pm on BBC 1.

A head for Heights - but where ?

Thank you so much Natasha for sending in this fabulous photograph - You certainly have a head for heights , what a fantastic view ! So let`s have a bit of fun now and play guess the location game ! The correct guess wins a free MND awareness band-I also want to see if any of you are clever enough to name this world famous building in which she is standing in !
Some of you might already have purchased bands from me before - please have a guess -I will pass the band along to the next person if you don`t want it -so leave a comment and have a go !

The Vergers Coffee Morning

Even though I was working yesterday -I managed to dash into church and take a few photographs of The Vergers [ Alan`s ] Coffee morning for MND [ and buy some raffle tickets on the way out I might add !! ]- thought it would be nice to share them all with you. I was very touched that he had gone to so much trouble , isn`t this cake beautifully iced ? Alan`s sister had made it [put mine to shame -I didn`t even try and ice mine !!] They had decided to use it as part of one of the raffle prizes . My sister contributed to the raffle by making one of her hampers- as was well as decorating some window ledges at the back of the church...

I thought this one is lovely

The ladies are very professional and good at what they do!

The colours used this time of year are lovely and fresh -we are lucky The Parish Church has such pretty window ledges and the stained glass makes for a lovely back drop on a sunny day,


The coffee morning raised £260.37 for The Motor Neurone Disease Association -a fantastic result ! Thank you to everyone involved-we really appreciate it- and a special thank you to Alan
for still thinking of Andrew and raising much needed awareness for this charity.

Coffee Morning and flower arranging for MND

The Verger of Prestatyn Parish Church Alan Jones, [ he knew Andrew well by the way ] has very kindly arranged to hold coffee morning on Saturday the 7th of April- where there will be a team of lovely ladies in church decorating the window ledges in readiness for Easter-the public are invited in to church to watch the ladies in action , chat and enjoy a coffee and see the work in progress. There will be a raffle and all the proceeds raised this year will be going to the MNDA.


The church will be open from 10 am to 11.30 am- and admission will be £1 per person.
Ann and I contribute and decorate a window ledge [ each] here every Harvest festival ,Christmas and Easter, though because of work commitments we get to sneak in the night before and arrange ours then ! Many years ago when my sister first started organizing the Prestatyn Flower show the floral art section was not that well supported [ I`am delighted to say it is now and the standard is very high ] as a result -I got dragged along to night classes with Ann -and have enjoyed many years decorating our church and joining in with flower festivals and entering the local shows-it has been a lot of fun . Please, if you get a moment pop in and support the ladies
-they work very hard to make the church look beautiful and are a very friendly bunch- always enjoying a good chat and much laughter over a cup of tea or coffee !

A little bit of a news update now.

I have just received an email from Christina who wrote to tell me how she got on with her last fundraiser [ see last post ] The auction and comedy night she organized for Eric made a staggering 11,000 pounds plus- with 10% of the proceeds going to the MNDA !!! -the rest is to be put into a trust fund for Eric`s 3 lovely children-she wrote there was a lot of laughter , joy and a few tears too !! Our next fundraiser is to be a Folk Music festival in Enfield [ not far from us then Christina ] will give out details of that when I know more . Well done to everyone involved.

Calling All Londoners !

You might remember a post a did a while back about Eric [pictured here above- last Boxing Day with family and friends- Colin and Cristina ] Cristina had written to me telling me about Eric`s home which had received a make over by the DIY SOS Team [ the programme is due to be screened soon- so please keep an eye out for it !] Well, Cristina has truly got the bit between her teeth and along with her friend Gemma has organized a comedy night to raise funds for Eric and his wife and the MNDA. It will be held this coming Saturday 10th of March at the Fox Pub in Palmers Green.North London.N13. Home to the Electric Mouse Comedy Club.
Cristina writes .......The DIY SOS team will be coming along and the programme`s presenter Nick Knowles has confirmed he will be there-There will be an auction and we are hoping he will agree to do it [ bet he will be brilliant at that ] So if you live anywhere near there please pop along and support this event !!
Just a reminder too -Cristina`s hubby Colin is in training to run The Virgin London Marathon on the 22nd of April [ not long to go now Colin ] to raise much needed funds for the MNDA.

http://www.justgiving.com/user/26134474

Cristina also writes....

Our local Waitrose have been very supportive and they have a green token scheme set up for " Supporting Eric " - They will donate a percentage of funds they have set aside for charities to the MNDA. Below is a photograph of Eric who popped along to say thank you in person.