Sara Weller, 61, from Bramley, will be tackling this year’s London Marathon, in a Wheelchair. She has launched the fundraising campaign MS Must Stop to help fund research into the condition that put her there – Multiple Sclerosis.
Sara has raised over £125,000, and is hoping to reach even more before the big day on 23rd April.
To help with Crowdfunding, they are running a prize draw. There are 17 prizes up for grabs, and you can enter for free via first class post or buy tickets.
Here’s what’s up for grabs:
- Three days / two nights at Virgin Hotels New York for two with complimentary breakfast including return flights.
- Three days / two nights at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas for two including complimentary breakfast.
- Five cases of luxury Virgin Wines worth £150 each.
- Ten Virgin Experience Days vouchers worth £150 each.
The draw is opened yesterday and closes at midnight on Thursday 20 April. Winners will be announced on Friday 21 April, if you’d like to enter.
“I wanted to make something good come of my move into a wheelchair so I decided to find a personal challenge, and use it to raise money to fund the research that is so vitally needed. “Research into progressive MS is at a critical stage. Researchers believe that “breakthrough treatments for MS are within touching distance.””
Did you know that over 130,000 people in the UK live with Multiple Sclerosis?
MS in its progressive form attacks the body’s nervous system and is unrelenting, incurable and largely untreatable. Sara has waited over a year to get access to one of the only 2 NHS-approved treatments for the condition.
For the past 3 months, she has been facing the ice-cold conditions and the bumpy roads near her Bramley home, to get in the miles of training, ready for April 23rd and the grueling 26.2 mile race.
“It is way more difficult than I had expected. The roads are uneven, potholes are everywhere, dealing with the camber is impossible, and wheeling up gentle slopes feels like climbing Mount Everest. And 26 miles is a very long way – two round trips to my favourite lunch spots at the Wellington Farm Shop café or the Hatch on the A30! But I must thank the many careful drivers who have stopped to make sure I am ok, the children waving from the playground and the friendly walkers whose little ones (and dogs) who seem baffled by my moving around on wheels.”
She has been getting tips from some of the world’s best ever wheelchair marathon athletes, Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson and David Weir, seen here with Sara in Richmond Park in February, who will do his 23rd London Marathon on 23rd April.
“I’ve always watched the London Marathon and wished I could do it, but I was never the right size or shape to run. But now I have wheels, and despite being 61, I feel that the sky’s the limit and I am going to give it every bit of energy I have. I am grateful for all the support I can get.”
To donate or find out more about his amazing cause, and Sarah’s journey see the MSMustStop website.
thanks, and good luck in future draws!