Update 7 December 2023 - What an amazing campaign the #59events has been. Since our last update, even more fundraising events have taken place including Castleford RUFC holding another fundraiser and raffle, Neil Collins taking part in a white-collar boxing bout and Steve Willett and friends at the Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes selecting the MPS Society as their Charity of the Year and raising an incredible £2,000! Steve has confirmed that this now brings the #59events to a close and is so pleased to report that you have all helped to raise £18,000 (including Gift Aid) for the MPS Society! Outstanding! The MPS Society will be forever grateful to Steve for all of his efforts over the years whilst juggling work and family life. What an amazing tribute to his dad, Andrew. All donations and fundraising have enabled the MPS Society to continue to support our Fabry community and continue to invest in some amazing work including creating new resources, facilitating counselling sessions for our members and being part of new and promising innovations in treating Fabry. We are also thrilled to announce that next year we will be holding our Fabry Matters Conference - a ground-breaking approach to understanding more about Fabry. From the very bottom of our hearts, thank you to everyone involved in Steve's #59events. To get in touch with us, please email fundraising@mpssociety.org.uk

_____________________________________

Update 12 July 2023 - Huge thank you to Steve Westwood and Hydraulic System Products who raised a fantastic £800 towards the #59events total. Well done! This amount has been added to our offline donations. Congratulations to Steve Gill's friend Jonathan who completed a very impressive 180 miles this weekend as part of the 200 mile Audax he and Steve had planned. Unfortunately, Steve was unable to take part but the pair are already planning their next attempt and are confident they will complete their challenge this year. Finally, huge thanks to Dan who raised a very impressive £400 by taking part in a 100 mile cycle on Exmoor!

______________________________________

Update 20 April 2023 - After 22 amazing fundraising events and a very impressive 64 people taking part in these events with Steve and all in aid of the MPS Society, Steve has decided it's time to bring #59events to its conclusion, but not before one final showdown. Steve says "With 37 events left, the plan is as follows: to undertake 36 bike rides of 59 kilometres (or more), finishing with a 300km Audax in July, which will be my longest ride to date since my road cycling journey began in May 2021". Stay tuned for more info...

______________________________________

When Steve Gill contacted us about wanting to raise awareness and funds in memory of his father Andrew Gill, and to support the wider Fabry and MPS community, we just knew we had to help.

Steve came up with a lovely idea of organising #59events to honour his father who had Fabry. In 2022, he's completed an impressive 150km cycle, a Santa dash, a half marathon and his children and nieces have taken on a junior parkrun. His friends wanted to be involved too with Joe running 100km in January, James cycling 300km in February and Cameron completing the Weston Super Half in March! Steve's school organised a raffle in April and an amazing team of 11 from CRUFC completed an impressive 75km cycling challenge. In May, Nick and Darren ran 100km and Andrey and Tom completed the London to Brighton bike ride in June. In July, Ben battled the heatwave and cycled 57 miles in the Great Weston Ride. In September, Andrew's friend Chris held a successful charity golf day to remember his friend and in October Steve's friend Lynden completed the Bath Half Marathon despite an early injury. On the same day, Steve and his friend Jonathan took on an "epic adventure" cycling 200km. Steve says it was gruelling and challenging but they were able to keep up the motivation by remembering why they were taking on this challenge! In November Steve's wife Rosie took the #59events plunge and set herself the challenge of swimming the equivalent length of the Channel. (21 miles!) December has seen another Santa Dash (of course)... we can't wait to see what 2023 holds.

As Steve would like to put on more events in 2023, here's where you can help. He wants to reach out to the wider Fabry/MPS community to encourage others to take on or organise an event so he can reach 59! Interested? Email us at fundraising@mpssociety.org.uk and we'll put you in touch with Steve.

Fabry and other MPS diseases are rare, genetic diseases and raising awareness and funds is so important to our little known community.

From Steve and The MPS Society, thank you for your support.