Kentish Express Ashford & District
Charity challenge is runaway success
Pupils from Ashford’s North School took part in a sponsored run to raise money for a charity which helps people with a rare neurological disease.
Children from the school’s form 9E4 are aiming to raise £1000 for the PSP Association, a small national charity which supports people living with progressive supranuclear palsy, known as PSP.
The form chose the PSP Association as their charity because Year 9 pupil Jess Bright’s grandmother Joan Bright was diagnosed with the terminal disease in 2013.
The rare terminal neurological condition progressively strips sufferers of their ability to walk, talk, see and swallow. Other symptoms gradually become worse over time, leaving many sufferers dependent on others for help.
Sufferers can experience unexplained dizziness and sudden frequent falls which are often backwards, mobility issues, muscle stiffness, tunnel vision, slow, quiet or slurred speech, slow thought process, memory problems and behavioural and cognitive changes including depression and apathy.
Around 4,000 people in the UK live with PSP at any one time, but it is believed there could be more case than this as symptoms can appear similar to other conditions such as Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s which can result in common initial misdiagnosis.
PSP is connected with the build-up of a protein called tau in areas of the brain, forming clumps which are believed to damage nerve cells.
Life expectancy is approximately around seven years from onset, but each case and the rate at which individuals’ symptoms progress is different.
A bake sale run by the pupils and the fun run with form teacher Jessica Langston and vice principal Matthew Hake raised more than £700 for the charity so far, £630 of which has been raised by Jess.
Joanna Irwin, Mrs Bright’s daughter said: “The family are very moved and proud of The North School students for supporting PSP and congratulate them on such a successful campaign to raise awareness.
“If anyone suspects they might have similar symptoms, then we urge them to ask their GP to refer them to a neurologist to screen them for PSP.”
The pupils are now planning a fete as their next fundraising task.
For more information on PSP, visit www.pspassociation.org.uk