Fiona Christie and her brother Chris have raised over £4000 for MDS UK by running their own marathon!
They ran the 26.2-mile race to help MDS patients like Fiona’s Mum, Marion Newton, who was diagnosed with the disease in 2012.
Special mention to 8-year-old Seth, who raised over £250 towards the pot and ran a half marathon in 7 days!
Fiona says:
It was an absolutely beautiful day in the North East of Scotland, rather too hot for running in but we made it around in just over 4 and a half hours.
We had a fantastic support crew of runners and riders and the public coming out along the way to cheers us on.
At the half-way point, we were delighted to be cooled off by some of our kids and their friends with their water guns- a blessed relief in the heat!! We were even piped across the finish line by a bagpipe- absolutely brilliant!
MDS (myelodysplastic syndromes) is a group of diseases where your bone marrow produces faulty blood cells. It is a type of cancer and is also known as bone marrow failure.
Mums diagnosis came after a barrage of tests and a bone marrow biopsy (ouch!). We had not heard of MDS before so a steep learning curve followed. Luckily she is under the care of Dr Culligan and his team at ARIs Anchor Unit which is a centre of excellence for the treatment of MDS. At the moment Mum is on a low dose chemotherapy drug that is keeping her stable, but she does have to live with the side effects of being on cytotoxic drugs along with the symptoms of MDS.
Despite this Mum never complains and is always there for me, my brothers and our families...and anyone else that needs her!
We would love to give something back to the charity that has given our mum (and others living with MDS) so much, please give what you can!
The whole family in MDS gear!
Please click on Fiona and Chris's VirginMoneyGiving Page to donate whatever you can to the family’s efforts so MDS UK can continue to support people like Marion.
THANK YOU. Thank you for everything you and your family continue to do for us Fiona, Chris and Seth. You're all amazing!
If this event has inspired you and you’d like to fundraise for MDS UK, please contact Jan on fundraising@mdspatientsupport.org.uk who will be delighted to help!
