A READING woman with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) has climbed a 50 metre high London landmark in her wheelchair.
Mary King scaled the capital’s prominent O2 building, also known as the Millenium Dome, to raise money for Berkshire MS Therapy Centre, in Reading.
Through her extraordinary effort, which she undertook this month, she raised more than £2,200 for the Berkshire MS Therapy Centre.
Mary has been going to the centre for over twenty years and is full of praise for the services it provides.
She said: “I find their support invaluable.
“From the minute you enter the building the volunteers are incredibly welcoming and friendly, and the support of staff has really helped me manage the symptoms of my MS over the past two decades.
“This challenge was an amazing experience – I loved it.
“The four men helping me were lovely, and I wasn’t scared at all.
“The views all around from the top are amazing.”
Tamzin Stuart, events and community fundraiser at the centre, said: “We’re so pleased that Mary was finally able to climb the O2, after two previous attempts were cancelled because of bad weather.
“We’re also so grateful to her for taking on this challenge in aid of the centre and we’re thrilled with the amount raised.
“We rely on our fantastic supporters to be able to keep our services going and we are always amazed by all their wonderful fundraising ideas.”
MS is an unpredictrable neurological condition for which there is no cure, but the therapies available at the Reading centre can make a huge difference to quality of life.
The Berkshire MS Therapy Centre supports the health and wellbeing of local people living with Multiple Sclerosis across Berkshire and parts of Oxfordshire, Hampshire, Surrey and Buckinghamshire.
It offers physiotherapy, exercise classes, oxygen therapy, counselling, footcare and complementary therapies, knowing that with the right support, people with MS can have a greater quality of life.
It is estimated there are 1,000 people with an MS diagnosis in the local area, and over 150,000 across the UK.
It is the most common cause of disability among young people in the UK, and it’s estimated that for every person diagnosed another 10 people (usually family and friends) are affected.
Berkshire MS Therapy Centre is a self-funding charity.
With demand on services at an all-time high, this year it needs to raise over £700,000.
For information, visit: bmstc.org, call: 0118 901 6000, or email: ms@bmstc.org
