£2.3million Boost to Search for MND Cure

Here is the text of a press release from National Office on 3 July 2007 announcing the biggest donation in the Association’s history.

The Motor Neurone Disease (MND) Association has received its largest ever donation pledge.

The £2.375 million pledge has been offered to fund new grants for biomedical research into the causes of and potential cure for motor neurone disease.

The donation from a Lawson Family Trust and related sources of funding will be made over a 6 year period and will be used by the MND Research Foundation for UK and international biomedical research projects. The donors, who wish to remain anonymous, were inspired to donate through their own personal experience of MND.

The Association’s Research Foundation was launched last year. It aims to raise £15 million to invest in researching MND, with £7.5 million from major donors, supported by a campaign to attract £7.5m worth of matched funding from the Government. The latest pledge follows closely on from the £1m pledge received last month from another anonymous donor who has also been personally touched by the disease. These plus other donations take the total amount raised so far to approaching £4m.

Commenting on the latest pledge, MND Research Director Brian Dickie, said: "This enormously generous donation takes us a significant step closer to achieving our goals of understanding the causes of MND and of finding a cure. I would like to express deepest heartfelt thanks to our benefactors on behalf of all people with MND. Because of the vision of this family and many other supporters, we will one day free the World of MND."