As you know, our headline charity for 2024-2026 is the Isle of Wight Branch of the Motor Neurone Disease (MND) Association. We are delighted to confirm our second year of support with a further £10,000 donation, and to announce the new fundraising initiative for this year.

Following the success of last year’s fundraising, which principally funded the Freedom Travel initiative – and was enabled by your generosity – this year we want to focus on how to enhance the home lives of all those on the Isle of Wight who are affected by MND.

It’s all about increasing enjoyment, inside and out. It’s about allowing individuals and their families and carers to enjoy life, not just function. We sincerely hope you will support us once again in raising money for this worthy and necessary charity. Our new target this year is £25,000. Together we can make it happen.

We want the purpose of this year’s fundraising to go beyond the practical challenges of living with MND and instead look at how lives can be improved with more bespoke support. We recognise that while grants are available for certain home adaptations, if those adaptations become the defining feature of the home, or life in general, everything can become significantly less homely. All this can affect not only the person with MND but also other family members and carers. This year’s funding won’t ignore the practical challenges of living with MND but will focus on wellbeing and how to improve the mental load that inevitably accompanies this health journey.

So funds raised through 2025 will primarily go towards helping people enjoy their homes and any outside space they might have, including covering adaptations not provided by other grants. For example, funds could help pay for a cleaner or handyperson to keep the home shipshape, or provide white goods, a new TV, a TV subscription package, or any items that could make everything more comfortable, such as a new mattress or armchair. Enhancing any outdoor space could include accessibility adaptations such as doors to the garden, transforming steps into a slope, changing gravel into a hard surface, or perhaps covering the cost of a gardener.

Knowing your home and garden are taken care of can bring peace of mind, but the funds might also be used to help individuals feel more ‘like themselves’ by covering hairdressing appointments, manicures, massages, the chiropractor or chiropodist, whether at home or with transport covered if needed.

Carers’ wellbeing will also be supported, enabling them to have a little ‘me time’, by perhaps covering the cost of an activity or pampering session, enabling them to take up a hobby or join a class (also covering the cost of any additional care that might be needed). Mealtime preparation can be tiring at the best of times, so funds raised could also allow for food delivery, such as from Hello Fresh.

We are so grateful to all of you for your generous support of last year’s Freedom Travel initiative and for making it so successful – you helped us beat the target amount by £2000! It was really well received, made a huge difference to people’s lives, and will continue to be provided.

Please help us raise as much money as possible, on top of the £10,000 each year, for the Isle of Wight Branch of the MND Association. Visit our Just Giving page to donate.

For more information, please visit the Isle of Wight Branch of the MND Association.