Rhona’s raising cash for charity without leaving her hospital bed

A WOMAN who has had multiple sclerosis (MS) for 37 years is undertaking a unique challenge to raise money for charity – without leaving her hospital bed.

Rhona Kingett, 55, pictured, has raised money for MS-UK’s My MS Marathon campaign in the past.

People all over the UK set their own challenges around the number 26 – the number of miles in a marathon.

Last year, Rhona set herself the challenge of doing her physiotherapy exercises for 26 days in a row. She raised £580.

This year, she was unable to do another physical challenge as she found herself hospitalised with an infection.

She said: “I looked around the room and there seemed to be very little that I would be able to do to take part in the virtual marathon. Then I looked out of the window.

“I’m a few floors up, so I couldn’t see anything except the sky and clouds. There it was, my challenge staring me in the face. I would learn the names of 26 clouds.” MS can often cause cognition problems, so researching and learning the names of 26 different formations of clouds was more difficult.

Rhona said: “I decided that I’d need to learn a little bit about each cloud type, too, so I could give a talk about the things I’d learnt.

“If I was out of hospital in time, I’d give a live talk. If I was still stuck in bed, I’d do a video talk.

“I was so pleased with the idea at first. But as I carried out my research on my smartphone I realised how much I’d taken on.

“The names were almost all in Latin. I’d not done anything much with Latin since I left school.

“But I was determined, and I’ve already got money on my MS-UK JustGiving page, so here I am with almost 26 cloud names learnt and the knowledge that MS-UK have a bit more money to smash their target.”

While being unable to do a more physical challenge, her goal has kept her driven and focused, taking her mind off of her illness and hospitalisation, Rhona said, as well as being able to raise money for an important cause. She said: “The clouds have kept me grounded, if that makes sense.

“It means the world to me to be able to raise money for something that’s so important to me.” Donate at:

The names were almost all in Latin. I’d not done anything much with Latin since I left school Rhona Kingett