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Alex Duncan

Donate and help me reach my goal of $1,000

Please help me reach my goal

Raised

$1,074

My Goal

$1,000

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$68
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My Progress

I'm running 250km this May to leave MS behind

My Progress

451.56km

My Target

250km

Support my challenge to leave MS behind!

I’m taking part in The May 50K challenge this May to raise funds for life-changing research into multiple sclerosis!

MS strikes young people in the prime of their lives. The average age of diagnosis is only 30 years old, and there is no known cure.

Please make a donation and support my challenge to leave MS where it belongs, behind us.

Your donation will support research into the prevention, treatment and finding a cure for multiple sclerosis to change lives.

Thank you!

My Updates

No more rain today

Getting cooler though!

Goal reached in the rain!

Now let's see if we can do 300km!

Running in the rain... but enough about me, I need to tell you about my brother

No drowned rat photo of me, I felt that it was time to post a photo of my brother, John, whom I am dedicating my efforts to this month.
You may be interested to know that the dog in the photo is his dog, Mate, who slept at the end of John's bed, outlived my mum (this was after her funeral), my other brother and my dad, and was loyal to the end.
John was caring, kind and generous to a fault.  A good role model and a great brother.
John was diagnosed with MS as a young man who had not yet started a family, dreaming of a myriad of ambitions and possibilities.  He loved his motorbike, riding horses and his family.  While it is extremely rare to die of MS itself, John passed due to complications from MS.  It is important to say at this point that not everyone with MS has the same journey.  So far, I have not had the same journey as John.  There are people living with MS walking among you, just as there are those in a wheelchair.  There are those with nerve pain, there are those whose extremities are numb, or even burning.  There are those like my brother who struggled with balance in the earlier days so much so that strangers accused him of being drunk.  Others will have trouble with vision (optical neuritis).  Fatigue.  Numbness.  Muscle weakness.  Difficulties with proprioception (knowing where limbs are).  Swallowing.  Chewing.  Digestive and bladder issues.  Anywhere you can think of nerves needing messages from the central nervous system.
Your donations don't just go towards finding a cure, they also go towards management of symptoms and other treatment options.  They go towards counselling people dealing with all of this.  As a side-benefit, research into autoimmune diseases can help with others, such as Crohn's disease, type 1 diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis and many others.  Hopefully, I can build enough awareness that you will want to learn more... I believe that a cure is closer than many think, and that even prevention is possible (talk to me about lifestyle changes, for example)... there are so many ways and angles that researchers are tackling this disease, it is realistic to have hope.

Beast mode unlocked!

I passed my original goal of 150km this morning. I would love to say the end is in sight, but when I make it to 250km I will keep going, just so you know, that this challenge is about maximum suffering for me so that you know how important MS research is... and that you can help without running at all!

Past halfway... again :)

250km goal... now this is more serious!

Mothers day classic

Happens to be another near and dear cause!

Halfway there

Queue music... livin' on a prayer... wonder if the bpm are a good running cadence 😜

Jurassic park

In the foreground we have one dinosaur (me) having finished the 10km run, with another dinosaur just about to start the MS Walk :) The headband was from my first MS Walk Run Roll many years ago... they used to be in June and were way colder!

26km evening before 10km ms walk run roll

... what was I thinking? 😉 Disce pati... "learn to suffer" -- clan motto (one of two, but this one works better). In other words, it is about sacrifice. It is about persistence. Perseverance. Grit. Acceptance. Surrender. Giving while it hurts. Giving because it hurts.

We hit the goal too quickly!

Your support has been so awesome that we almost hit the fund-raising target on day 2!!! So I've edited the target because, well, apart from being a good cause you would all want me to work for it! I won't edit it again, by all means donate past the target, it isn't meant to be an upper limit. But I can't leave this here without saying I am deeply humbled and grateful for such a strong show of support -- love you all and let's kick MS to the kerb!!!

Just gettin' started...

Day 1... 11km, 20% of 50km done, oh wait, I signed up for 150km, aiming for 200km. make my stupidity count for something! The red shirt in the photo is what I am wearing for MS Australia and May 50k colours. it also happens to be my Parkrun 50 milestone shirt which is going to get quite a bit of use. Consider this, if you run the 5km Parkrun every Saturday in May, and also run with Canberra Pub Runners once every week, then that is 5 park runs and 4 x 5km pub runs... 45km in May done already... see running can be fun, but I'm here for the pain because when you are forced to dig deep that is where you will find true human spirit (guess I'll let you know if that is true)!

Thank you to my Sponsors

$72.08

Rachelle Macdonald

$68

Melinda Julius

Well done Alex, you're a legend!

$53

Lisa B

You should be very proud of yourself. John would be ♥️

$53

Claire F

Well done Alex!

$53

Karen

Well done Alex

$53

David Jarvis

Best of luck Alex with your walk Alex. Walking for a great cause.

$50

Kat N Darren Fleck

Congratulations Alex... proud of you x

$38.16

Thy

Run Alex run :)

$37.62

Anonymous

$21

Anna N

$21.20

Anwar Aziz

Good Luck Alex!

$21.10

Aunty Mari

From auntie Mari

$10.60

Gwyneth Duncan

💖

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