Katharine is Andrea's daughter, and was diagnosed with ME when she was 14. Last September Katharine celebrated her 21st birthday and chose to 'donate' her birthday to ME Research UK. Instead of gifts, she asked friends and family to donate money to the charity and held a proper old-fashioned tea party, raising a staggering £1,500. Impressed by Katharine's generosity in donating her birthday to this charity, we are now training to walk the 26.5 mile Bath Beat on 11th April to raise more money for ME Research UK and continue Katharine's fundraising. The 'we' involved are Katharine's mum (Andrea), Andrea's friend (Helen), and Helen's daughter and friend to Katharine, Heather, who is nearly 21.
ME is a terribly misunderstood disease, making a life limiting illness into a battle, at times even with the medical profession. With further research Katharine is young enough to benefit from new understanding, improved medication, and maybe even a cure for ME. That alone is a great reason to support this charity, because we take it for granted that we can walk whenever we want, but for Katharine she can't even take that for granted.
To find out more about Katharine and her experiences with ME you can follow her blog: Katharine Cheston’s blog. She’s really inspiring and I’m very proud of her. And to find out how we are getting on with training for this marathon walk, you can read my blog if you search for onesmallhelen (the link seems to be having an off day).Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.
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.