Two Lancashire hospital trusts join forces to raise money for MND in Preston

Julie Sala, MND Nurse Specialist from the MND Care and Research Centre at Royal Preston Hospital (RPH), along with neurology consultant Dr Suresh Chhetri and Tracy Sconce, clinical team leader from ELHT Colne district nurses, have organised a 30 miles walk from RPH to Colne health centre.

Money raised will go towards Motor Neurone Disease Association (MNDA) and MND Care Centre at Royal Preston Hospital.This is the third year Julie and Tracy have organised this walk. Last year they raised £7,500.Julie previously worked for ELHT Colne district nurses but is now on secondment to RPH MND Care and Research Centre.Julie, of Great Harwood, holds the cause very close to her heart as she lost her husband, Santino, to MND 16 years ago. He was aged 39. She said: “This walk is in memory of a fantastic husband and father who didn’t get the privilege of seeing his son’s first day at school or his daughters’ graduations. “Since his death, I have trained to be a nurse and worked my way up to be an MND Specialist Nurse. We are doing the 30 mile walk to raise valuable funds for research and much needed monitoring equipment at the MND Care Centre. “MND is such a cruel terrible disease which is fatal and has no known cure; leaving people unable to walk, talk, or feed themselves.“MND can affect how you walk, talk, eat, drink and breathe. Some people also experience changes to their thinking and behaviour. However, MND affects everyone differently. Not all symptoms will affect everyone, or in the same order. Symptoms also progress at varying speeds, which makes the course of the disease difficult to predict.MND affects up to 5,000 adults in the UK at any one time. This means it is considered a relatively rare disease. "

The walk will take place on Saturday September 23.

If you are interested in joining the walk email [email protected]