After more than 3 years, we have finally been able to grant my Dad's wishes and organise a memorial football match in memory of him with me, his son, and his best mates, Iso, captaining two teams made up of family, friends and teammates. It is an occasion for all that knew and loved him to finally get together and commemorate him and remember the great man that he was.

Amyloidosis is a rare disease caused by damaging build up of abnormal protein fibres, called amyloid, within the tissues and organs. Amyloidosis can affect any part of the body and lead to life threatening organ failure. Until my Dad's diagnosis of type AL Amyloidosis in April 2019 we had never heard of it before but now it's like it's all we can think about. In my Dad's case, by the time he got his diagnosis, the Amyloid had affected his heart, kidneys, nervous system and digestive system. He had to go through a course of chemotherapy, which stopped the production of Amyloid for a short time, but the damage done was too much and on 22nd April 2020 my Dad, the kindest, most caring, healthiest person I have ever known sadly lost his battle with this rare and incurable disease. 

So in his memory, we want to raise as much awareness about this disease as possible and, with the help of your donations, want to contribute to finding better prolonging treatments and ultimately a cure for this disease. It causes the death of about one person in every thousand and there are about 6,000 cases in the UK at any time and our hope is that by raising funds we can help make sure those diagnosed, their families and the amazing medical staff have a better chance of fighting it.

The Amyloidosis Research Fund within the Royal Free Charity supports the research, development and patients of the UK NHS National Amyloidosis Centre (NAC) at the Royal Free Hospital. The Centre, established in 1999, is funded directly by NHS Specialised Services to provide diagnostic and management advisory services for all UK amyloidosis patients.