News from Andrew and Gwen Monk, fundraising for MS

Those of you who walked a mile for MS or sponsored us, please see the latest update from Andrew and Gwen. And I am sure like me, you will all be sending them your best wishes..
 
Dear Councillor Baldock,


After completing 2,000 miles of our sponsored walk to every newspaper office and radio station in England we have had to postpone it temporarily. This year has been a particularly bad year for Gwen who has had MS now for 18 years, and she is just too poorly for us to go on.

But we have hopes that her symptoms will be alleviated by an operation she is having this month in Edinburgh, and that we will be back on track at the beginning of next year.

An Italian Doctor, Dr. Zamboni, has found that MS may well be caused by a narrowing of the main veins in the neck, dubbed CCSVI. Gwen had a scan in July which found that she does indeed have this narrowing of
the Jugular veins on both sides of her neck, and she is heading up to Edinburgh later this month to have a simple angioplasty procedure which will correct this narrowing and hopefully put her back on the road to recovery. The one sticking point at the moment is that we are struggling to raise the £5,500 pounds to pay for the procedure. It is not available on the NHS.

The reports we have heard from other people about their amazing recoveries after the procedure sound too good to be true, but our hopes are high.

In the meantime, to continue the fundraising for The Myelin Project, I have produced a CD called the Northern Word which features 11 tracks from bands from around the North of England, and I am in the process of photographing MPs and horse riders for two new calendars.

Thank you once again for the support that you gave us during our sponsored walk and I will let you know how everything goes in Edinburgh.

Kindest regards
Andrew
Email: andrewmonk@walkamile.co.uk
web: www.walkamile.co.uk

Further update: We have raised the money for Gwen's op. and we are heading up to Edinburgh tomorrow, Tuesday. The op. is on Friday all being well, and we will be back home on Monday after the post op.

Please do put the email on your website, we'd really appreciate it.
Will let you know how things go in Edinburgh.
Gwen sends her love, and love from me too.
Andrew