MND Charter Campaign
In June 2012 the MND Association launched the MND Charter. It’s a statement to highlight the respect, Care and support that people living with MND and their Carers deserve. To see more, please see the link here.
On seeing it’s launch, I set out to persuade friends and family to sign the Charter, and even persuaded my local MP, my first step as a campaigner! The intent was to gain signatures by the time the document was handed in to 10 Downing Street in June 2015.
After being asked to get involved more formally as a campaigner, I then set about to get a huge push for signatures, getting MP’s across Greater Manchester to sign, councillors to sign, and managed to get my first council to pass a formal motion (Trafford Council).
I used various ways to ask, social media comes in handy! I also managed to get sports clubs, some celebs, and anyone I could talk to about MND to sign up. By the time it closed for individual signatures, it had passed 30,000!
I was honoured and delighted to be asked to help deliver the MND Charter to 10 Downing Street, as recognition for my efforts, and could not believe a little lad from Stockport was at the door of the Prime Minister, some campaign journey!
As of the end of 2016 I had secured four councils in Greater Manchester, helping take the total across the UK to over 50, in the Charters second phase, and continue to press home the message about the Charters importance. Read more about our Charter success with Oldham Council online here.
Stockport signs the MND Charter!
In 2017, I finally secured my fifth Council, my hometown of Stockport!
It was a great pleasure to get Stockport onside, and naturally the most pleasing, as it was a personal goal I wanted to aim for. The agreement on the MND Charter followed the Councils agreement to light the town hall in June 2017, and the MND Charter adoption followed!
Stockport also lit the Town Hall again in 2018, where we were joined by the Mayor, Walter Brett! See more about the story here, and we were selected as the Mayors Charity, with Parkinsons UK, and we pleased to help support all the events!
You can read about our ongoing success with Stockport Council on the article we wrote for our branch website here!
The work on the MND Charter will continue, as I want to see all Councils across Greater Manchester come onside, but also I want to see it implemented at the wider Greater Manchester borough level, so I will keep on campaigning until that happens!
