TEST PAGE

Running a sponsored event

If you decide you would like to raise some money for LDA through a sponsored event, we can help you to create a page on the MyDonate website.

Your supporters will be able to make donations using their credit/debit cards and you will be able to track the amount donated. We use this facility because MyDonate pass on to us all of the donation plus any Gift Aid, only deducting the actual cost charged by the card company. Some other sites charge a fee of up to 5% of the donation.

There is a special form for collecting money if you want to do it in person which will enable us to collect Gift Aid on qualifying donations. You can use this instead of, or as well as, the MyDonate website.

Download Sponsorship Gift Aid Declaration form.

We can also publicise your event here on our website, and on our Twitter and Facebook pages. Our PR team can also help you with contacting local press.

If you would like to raise money for LDA please contact our Donation email address.

Fundraising places available

We have places for the following events. If you are interested in one of these please contact our donation email address above.

 

 

 

Current events

Would you consider raising money for us? Please let us know!

Alan Smith is taking on the Glencoe Marathon on the 2nd of October as 11 of his friends contracted Lyme disease.  The off-road marathon Alan is embarking on is an epic trail run that ascends a total of 1,608 metres through the heart of Glencoe and into the foothills of Ben Nevis.  The route snakes through the pass of Glencoe, surrounded by the towering remains of this ancient super volcano, before climbing 500 metres up the fearsome Devil’s Staircase over the eastern edge of the truly fearsome Aonach Eagach Ridge. From the eastern edge of the Ridge you look straight onto the mighty Buachaille Etive Mor (the great herdsman) before dropping back to sea level at Kinlochleven. Climbing up through the Mamores the route undulates until the descent into Glen Nevis and the base of the mighty Ben Nevis, the UK’s highest peak.

You can sponsor

Gordon’s Kayak Challenge

Gordon is kayaking on the 8th September to raise funds for LDA.

“I intend to take on my 27 mile kayak from Loch Oich to Dores on Loch Ness. The run from Loch Oich to Fort Augustus is a 6.6 mile river rapid which I intend to complete with some family members. On arrival at Fort Augustus my family will swap their kayaks for a motorised boat as I take on the 20.1 mile kayak to Dores at the far end of Loch Ness. Since graduating university I wanted to do something different to raise the awareness of Lyme disease as I have witnessed how it can effect someone’s life. My best friend became ill around the age of 14 and was forced to leave school by 16 due to decline of health and the severity of symptoms. Over the next three years she was wrongly diagnosed by the NHS, followed by negative blood tests for Lyme disease. She was then given a wrong diagnosis of M.E/CFS. With a decline in health the next step was to go privately as they suspected Lyme. This led to a specialist’s treatment. After 5 years of treatment with good results, more is required.

I am currently joining the Navy, if for some reason I can’t complete the event at Loch Ness I shall match the same distance on a rowing machine. My aim is to raise awareness and funds for the Lyme disease cause. The Kayak route I have chosen is from Loch Oich to Dores on Loch Ness, a total distance of roughly 27 miles. I have seen first-hand how this disease can change someone’s life and I hope to be able to help in my small way.”

You can support Gordon’s efforts via his MyDonate page

Fern’s Half Marathon

Fern Calderwood ran the Edinburgh Half Marathon on 29th May.

“I’m Fern- a 22 year old student from Glasgow, I am running the half marathon in Edinburgh to hopefully raise some awareness of Lyme disease in Scotland in my social circles. I personally was diagnosed with Lyme in January, after 6 months of failed diagnosis.

After talking to family and friends it seemed that Lyme was completely unheard of to anyone (as it was to me), and I wanted to raise some awareness of the condition so that if anyone who also had the rash could get the treatment needed.

I also want to raise as much money as possible for Lyme Disease Action as it has been an amazing source of information for me personally.”

Thank you, Fern! Please support Fern by donating via her MyDonate page.

Bev Chapman’s Wing Walk

Bev said “I am wing walking to raise money for LDA. Lyme Disease Action is a U.K. based charity which helps raise public and clinical awareness of this horrible tick borne disease. Lyme disease is spread by infected ticks – (horrible wee beasties!) Which are prevalent in the great outdoors. If patients are not given the correct treatment and early enough, can lead to much more devastating consequences. So something as simple as reading leaflets to raise your own awareness can be so important!

My son Drew was diagnosed with Lyme disease in January 2015 when he was just 5 years old. It began with a rash on his torso along with severe tiredness and lethargy and then 2 weeks later he suffered a torticollis in his neck, he was in a lot of pain. There was no tick, no bullseye marking, I had no idea what was wrong with him. Drew was diagnosed with the disease through a blood test and because it was dealt with quickly and efficiently he seems to have recovered well. It is vitally important that the we are all made aware of what to do if you find a tick on you, or your child ( or even pet!) before it’s too late to treat.

Please take a moment to donate and help me reach my target…Every contribution counts, no matter how small I will be very grateful!

Let’s bite this disease on the ass by helping raise awareness!

Wish me luck, I must be aff ma heid!!“

 

Bev’s wing walk took place on 28th May.

Here she is doing it!

You can still support her by donating via her MyDonate page.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

RideLondon 2016

 

 

 

 

Following in the successful tyre tracks of Graham and Sara last year, we have two intrepid riders taking part alongside Graham in this year’s 100 mile cycling challenge around the roads of London and Surrey. Beckie Bingham and Andrew Collett have volunteered to raise money for Lyme disease.

With four kids (ages 5-14), a part-time student of the OU, a swimming teacher, a keen climber and runner, Beckie is a goddess of multitasking. A rock climber for the past 15 years, she loves bouldering in the Yorkshire dales, Peak District and Fontainebleau. But now Beckie will be training hard for the next 9 months with a new goal of cycling the London100 raising money for Lyme Disease Action. Support Beckie via her Mydonate page.

Andrew is married with 2 children and is a Biology lecturer at Huddersfield University. Andrew is going to take on the challenge of the RideLondon 100 to raise money for Lyme Disease Action.In addition to raising money for the charities important work, as he will reach the age of 50 just before the event, he is hoping to prove to himself and anyone else who might be watching that he’s up to more than occasionally running for a bus! Support Andrew via his Mydonate page.

Graham was so pleased when he completed the course and raised funds for LDA that he wanted to do it again this year!

Support Graham via his Mydonate page

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Many thanks to those who have raised money for us

RideLondon 2015

Graham Davis and Sara Parfett took part in Prudential Ride London on 1st/2nd August 2015. From the website, “a 100-mile challenge on the same closed roads as the professionals, with the added incentive of raising money for good causes. To capture it all, the best action is broadcast live on TV in the UK and internationally, to be seen by an audience of millions.”

Many thanks to Graham and Sara for doing this and for raising £1389.58!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kirsty McAllister’s Skydive

Kirsty has a friend with Lyme disease, and decided to throw herself out of a perfectly good aeroplane with only a piece of thin fabric on her back. That sounded like a great reason to sponsor her!

Kirsty raised £1216.25 via her MyDonate page. Thank you, Kirsty!

Sian’s Long Runs!

Sian Thomas ran the Cardiff half marathon, and has previously completed the Cardiff 10K, to raise money for LDA. Sian’s MyDonate page was set up with a target of £500, but she outdid that easily and raised the fantastic sum of £712.50!

She says,

“My mother was recently diagnosed with Lyme disease after travelling in America for her 50th birthday last year.

The support and help that she has received from Lyme Disease Action as a charity has been invaluable to her and I am aiming to raise as much money and awareness for the charity as possible.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stewart Bint walks 10km barefoot

Writer Stewart has a friend with Lyme disease, and offered to raise money for LDA by taking part in the Amis Sans Shoes 10km walk at the War Memorial Park in Coventry. Amis Sans Shoes is a community of people who enjoy walking and running barefoot. Their event is principally raising money for an international aid agency, but the organisers kindly allowed Stewart to raise funds for LDA.

Stewart decided to spend a full two months before the event completely barefoot!

Here’s Stuart’s report of the event.

“Barefoot Walk – Further Than Expected! 10km Became 16km.

Desford author Stewart Bint’s (on the right, above) 10km barefoot walk to raise awareness of Lyme Disease took an unexpected turn. Having misjudged the route, the gruelling Amis Sans Shoes walk ended up being 16.6km, which is 10.3 miles.

“It was a good job I’d taken advice and gone barefoot constantly during the two months before the walk,” said 58-year-old Stewart. “It meant my feet had become well acclimatised to cope with that challenging distance and surfaces.”

Having signed up early in the new year to undertake the walk in Coventry, he decided to dedicate it to his Twitter and Facebook friend Cat Kozich, from Tennessee in America, who has suffered from Lyme Disease since 2007.

“But so much more needs to be done to bring this dreadful disease into the public arena. I like to think my efforts over the last three months, culminating in this walk, have made more people aware of it.”

The walk began at the Coventry War Memorial Park and moved on to trails through Wainbody Woods and Canley Ford. “The terrain included tarmac pavements, gravel paths, woodland trails and grassland. But, of course, we had to come across my personal nemesis – a carpet of dead holly leaves! We had to pick our way extremely carefully through those.”

Stewart, who was joined on the walk by fellow members of the Coventry Barefoot Hiking Chapter, said he could not believe the total distance they walked when they arrived at the finish. “I thought it might have been just a little over the 10k, perhaps around 12k, but I was astonished to see it was 16.6k. That meant we walked over half as much again as we intended.

“My feet were fine afterwards…there was just a slight tightening in my calf muscles.”
Stewart’s decision to go barefoot constantly in the two months before the walk attracted considerable media coverage, all of which has brought Lyme Disease valuable publicity. It includes four radio interviews – 10 minutes, 1 hour (as the ‘in-depth’ special guest, 10 minutes, all live in the studio, and 8 minutes live on the phone during the walk itself – and four substantial stories in newspapers and magazines, with two post-walk stories still to be published.” Stuart raised £132.50

Kelvin Fraser cycled the Etape Loch Ness

The Etape Loch Ness was a new cycle challenge that followed a 66-mile route alongside Loch Ness and back the other side.

Kelvin was diagnosed with Lyme two years ago and is keen to raise awareness in Scotland.

Kelvin reports, “Everything was checked and checked again the night before. The plans were in place for meeting my cycling partner at 6am on the day of the race and we would head over to the starting point, all was well. I woke up with a jump on race day – it 5.20am and my alarm hadn’t gone off! not the start to the day I had planned!

Despite the late start I still managed to make the rendezvous and we headed off to the start.
There was a good buzz around with everyone looking forward to the first Etape Loch Ness!
6.30 and the first wave of riders were on their way! 6.46 soon came around and I was on my way.

Once onto the A82 I felt good and soon starting to make way up the ranks and kept a good pace.
coming out of Fort Augustus and onto the south side of the Loch I knew what was ahead of me – the climb up Glendoe! I managed up the hill without stopping and I knew that I would complete the course as long as there were no bike issues!

I kept a good pace all the way back to Inverness and finished in a time of 3 hours and 56 minutes! This put me in 416th overall out of 1250 riders, with an average of 17mph!
Already thinking about how I can beat the time next year!”

 

Kelvin raised £550 for his fantastic effort.

Tamworth Arts Club

A member of the club has suffered from Lyme, so they decided to dedicate the opening night (22nd April) of their production, “The Sound of Musicals” to us and to donate the profits from that night. They raised £156. Thanks to everyone who was involved.

Maidenhead Choral Society

Our Chairman, Stella, attended the Maidenhead Choral Society’s Christmas Party, and gave a talk about Lyme disease. The Society very kindly made a collection for us and raised £182.22.

Denny’s Coniston Challenge

14 miles around Lake Coniston in the Lake District: probably the most beautiful road race in the country, but will he be admiring the scenery?!

Denny says, “I am running a range of races this year to help support this charity. This will be the first of my runs for this year. My friend Nicola suffers from Lyme disease and I want to support her and the charity to enable them to carry out the vital research that they are undertaking.”

Denny’s MyDonate page raised £270.

“Run to the Beat”

Kerry White ran this half marathon for us. The run took in a circuit of Greenwich Park in London, and Kerry’s MyDonate page raised £250.

Ross’s Switzerland Walk June to July 2013.

Ross walked from Yorkshire to Switzerland; entirely self contained and camping on the way.

Ross is on the right. He is pictured here with a friend, whose experience with Lyme partly inspired this trip.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is a map of his route.

 

 

 

 

 

June 13th 2013 – Ross left Halifax, Yorkshire.

June 19th 2013 – in the last few days he has walked from Zeebrugge to Ghent, and is hoping to reach Waterloo today.

June 23rd 2013 – nearing the border with Luxembourg.

June 29th 2013 – in Echternach in Luxembourg. He says, “Luxembourg the country is amazing for walking. Small but steep sided hills covered in woods and small forests. The large valleys have rivers running through them and the smaller valleys are more gorge like with little ribbon streams and hemmed in by ribbons of rock faces covered in moss and bracken and over hung by a mix of deciduous and evergreen trees. The wildlife too is everywhere…”

July 7th 2013 – he crossed the Mosel into Germany and then followed the river into France. Apparently few tourists visit this area, so there were no campsites or hotels, and Ross got stared at a lot, but has enjoyed visiting parts of the Maginot line and a castle or two! He has made it through Sarreguemines and on to Bitches, and is planning his route towards Switzerland.

July 14th 2013 – despite problems with his feet, Ross chose to walk through the Vosges mountains towards Mulhouse. Says Ross, “The Vosges Mountains are truly a small corner on earth one could call a paradise.” He’s been finding ticks in the area as well, although he hasn’t been bitten yet. It seems most people there know the risk – good for them!

July 20th 2013 – Ross is now in Thann, near Mulhouse, and is very close to the Swiss border. He says it has been very hot there, so we are not the only ones sitting in a heatwave.

July 22nd 2013 – after six long weeks of walking and “a long blistering walk across the Alsace valley”, Ross makes it to Basel just inside the Swiss border! Ross raised £223.75

Ruby’s Cycle Ride (with her Daddy)

Ruby’s Cycle Ride (with her Daddy) raised £328

John Hunter cycled with his daughter Ruby in the 13 mile long Westhill Bike Ride west of Aberdeen at the beginning of June.

Ruby and Daddy took 1hr 7mins last year at an average speed of 11.6mph. This year they did it in 56mins – despite Ruby being a bit heavier!

There can’t be many toddlers who would sit still on the back of a bike for an hour; nor many fathers who would race with them behind! They raised £340, thank you Ruby and Daddy.

 

 

 

Helen Porter ran the 2013 London Marathon and raised a colossal £34,072.75

Despite telling friends “never again” and despite being two years older Helen completed the marathon in a time not far short of her previous run. Helen said “It was a struggle, but I made it. It was a beautiful day, warm (a bit too warm), and the crowds were magnificent, as always. I have just heard that there were record crowds (700K +) and I would like to think that this is at least partly because we Brits wanted to put up two metaphorical fingers to the Boston terrorists“

 

 

Here she is just before the finish.

 

 

 

A magnificent effort prompted by having seen the devastating effects of Lyme disease on her sister.

 

 

 

Abby’s Nippy Dip in the North Sea raised £548.75 for LDA

Abby Twigger took a very chilly dip at Aberdeen beach on Boxing Day to raise money for LDA. She achieved twice her target! 

Abby says “Bizzarrely it wasn’t as bad as I thought, and even though I had shaky legs afterwards that can happen to Lymies too, so it felt right! I chose the charity Lyme Disease Action because one of my absolute favourite people had Lyme disease return for the second time in her life and I have seen the effects of it on her and her family.”

 

 

Helena’s hike round London raised £892.50

On a Sunday in May 2012 (normally her day off) Helena completed a 26-mile walk around London. The hike started at the Olympic Park in Stratford and ended at the O2 in Greenwich, taking in Regents Park, Lord’s Cricket Ground, Hyde Park and The Mall along the way.  Helena said afterwards “I have to admit my feet were a bit sore in the office the next day, but everyone was very sympathetic!”

Carol trekked the Scottish West Highland Way – £425 + Gift Aid