This terrible disease has affected the life of an ex Royal Signals friend of mine.  In better days he was a determined,  tough, intelligent soldier who achieved all his aims and was highly respected by all who knew him.   His name is Chas Dowie.  I was humbled when I went to visit him in his, much adapted, home in Yorkshire in November 2017.  

Chas served in the Army for 33 years; he was very active and enjoyed a successful athletics career whilst serving.  He ran 1 00m, 200m and 400m for the Army and combined services; He also ran at county level and was the Army's 200m champion for 2 years.

He also loved distance running, orienteering and skiing. He was skiing when he first noticed the signs that something was wrong, he started to fall over and couldn't get up and he realized he dis not have full control over his legs and started to loose power and function in his muscles and he identified symptons indicative of MND

Chas volunteered for full body MRI scans and (needle-less) EMG testing.  The resulsts ofn that researched has been published and the outcome is a much quicker diagnosis of MND - an objective tool for assessing MND "cures"  Chas was 1 of only 3 people to complete this research in the UK. 

The Ride London 100 is a bit of a challenge, but I have done some pretty big hills in the last year including Mt Ventoux (2012m)  so it will be a piece of cake compared to the challenges Chas faces now and will face in the future.

Riding this event and raising money for the MND Association  may not do much to help Chas, but it will hopefully allow the MND Association to help others who are on the MND journey and fund further research.

If you know Chas, or even if you don't, you can appreciate that living with MND after leading a full active life must be very difficult but Chas was smiling and even joking during my visit last year.  

I ask you to donate as much as you can afford to the charity which Chas has adopted. He actually helps them, rather than the other way round.

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving - they'll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they'll send your money directly to the charity. So it's the most efficient way to donate - saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

If you are a UK tax payer please also gift aid your donation.

Finally. My original target of £550 was that which I had pledged I would raise to be able to enter the Ride London Event.  Thanks to the generosity of my donors the target has been reached but you what taking it even higher looks really good when people land on my just giving page and means the MND Association can do even more to help people like Chas.  So please can I ask you to help me make it 200%