A group of four men are cycling from London to Paris in support of the Oxford Centre for MND Research and Care.
Lowe & Fletcher Chairman, Hugh Trevor-Jones, will be joined by three colleagues on the gruelling 300-mile bike ride from Greenwich to the Eiffel Tower this summer.
Team 'L&F' is cycling in memory of fellow board director, Douglas Trevor-Jones, who died from motor neurone disease in 2009.
Any money raised will help support the Oxford MND Care Centre, founded in 2001, and home to pioneering biomedical, clinical and healthcare research projects, as well as trials for possible treatments of MND.
Hugh recently visited Oxford with MND Association Chief Executive Sally Light. The pair were accompanied by the centre’s founder Professor Kevin Talbot and Dr Martin Turner, who joined in 2004.
Both men are employed by Oxford University’s Department of Clinical Neurosciences, which enables them to spend most of their time on MND research, with roughly one day per week seeing patients.
‘We were hugely impressed by all the complex research that is being undertaken and the high levels of care on offer,’ said Hugh.
‘The visit has inspired me to train harder for my London to Paris cycle ride in July!’
There are roughly 1,500 new cases of MND diagnosed in the UK every year. The Oxford centre sees around 150 of these and has an active list of some 200 people.
Patient care plans involve continual assessment, planning ahead to avoid crises, returning some measure of control to patients, nutrition and dealing with end-of-life issues. People with MND are seen every three or four months, with a growing number of home visits.
There is no provision within the NHS for supporting this type of consultant led research, so the centre is dependent upon external financial resources such as the MND Association.
‘Patients come to Oxford from all over the country because of its reputation as a specialist centre for ground-breaking MND research and care,’ said Hugh.
‘It gives them great comfort at a difficult time.’
Team L&F (as pictured above) includes Phil Walker, UK Group Managing Director; Giles Birt, Group Finance Director; Rachel Smith, PA; Justin Broadbent, Non-Executive Director; Hugh Trevor-Jones, Chairman.
You can support Hugh and the team by visiting their Virgin Money Giving Page here.
For more information about the Oxford MND Care Centre, click here.
08/05/2013
