Saturday, 2 July 2011

Big Bloke on A Bike Raising Cash and Awareness of Amyloidosis!!


Wow! Mark Swatton, Head of Clinical Governance at the National Waiting Times Centre at Golden Jubilee Hospital in Clydebank started the year as one of my clients.  Little could he have known that a few months later, we'd be friends with a common interest in cycling and he would be picking up the challenge of raising awareness of this nasty, but rare disease that neither of us had heard of. 

As you'll see from Mark's own blogs, his challenges are hard, taking part in cycling Etapes and Sportives in Scotland, over hundreds of miles in total and requiring many hours of training in between.  He is not a club cyclist so this is a serious, one-man challenge and I am immensely impressed with the interest that he's shown in this cause and his desire to do something positive to help.  According to the staff at the NAC, many people have probably died of Amyloidosis without ever having been diagnosed with it, such is the ignorance surrounding it.  Raising awareness may be the thing that saves one person, simply by getting them to the attention of the right people, fast enough.

If you want to help, Mark's Justgiving site is the place to make a donation but read his Blog anyway to see how much he's done to help so far. 

http://www.justgiving.com/Mark-Swatton (Remember to leave a comment too!)

Big Bloke on A Bike