In May 2009 Phil Smith and Steve Olding are riding their motorbikes around Britain to raise money for the Earl Mountbatten Hospice & the IoW Motor Neurone Disease Association.
In May 2008 Bessie, my wife of 21 years, was diagnosed with MND. This was a huge shock as Bessie was only 49 at the time.
Bessie was a nurse for over 20 years, mostly caring for the elderly, working for the National Blood Service IoW Team, and Laidlaw Day Hospital. MND usually causes weakness in their limbs, but most people retain their faculties with a few experiencing some personality change. Bessie has yet to experience much physical deterioration beyond a near total loss of speech and extreme difficulty eating and swallowing, but her personality change is very marked. A once highly intelligent and outgoing person is now reduced to a child-like being with little or no desire to do much more than watch “Scooby-Doo” cartoons on TV.
Bessie no longer works, needing almost constant care, but I still work full time as we have one 15-year old son at school and a 19-year old full time student living at home. We manage between us (I have a very understanding employer) but without the help of the Hospice I would have to give up work to care for Bessie, putting the family in a very difficult situation.
In return for their help I want to raise some funds for both the Hospice and the IoW Branch of the Motor Neurone Disease Association (Registered Charity no. 294354). I am undertaking a sponsored motorcycle tour of England and Scotland in May this year accompanied by an old school friend Steve Olding. We will be riding some 1400 miles, visiting locations associated with the life and career of Lord Louis Mountbatten.
We will be meeting all our travel and accommodation costs ourselves, except ferry crossings generously supplied free by Red Funnel, and all monies raised will go to the Hospice and the IoW MND Association. This might not seem much a challenge but despite both riding bikes since the early 1970s, neither of us has ridden such distances for a long while, e.g. being wrong side of 50 may question our endurance.
Please sponsor us today. It is simple and easy at our Just Giving fundraising page www.justgiving.com/mountbattenmnd
