Help Paul To Fight Motor Neurone Disease (MND)

Hi everyone - my name is Josh Jackman.

In April 2021, my friend and colleague, Paul Smith, was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease (MND).

Since his diagnosis, Paul has faced many challenges and most recently, after now losing the function of both his arms and legs, requires a move from his first-floor apartment where he currently has to spend up to several weeks in a single room.

Paul and his family have secured a new property but require funds to adapt this to become accessible for Paul's needs and unfortunately do not have the amount required alongside significant other ongoing medical costs. Paul has provided an update on the situation himself here.

The "All Paul Together" family are now raising funds to help Paul improve the quality of life for not only himself but also his wife Tash and two children Holly and James.

Despite his own situation, Paul is committed to giving back to the wider MND community and all money raised will not only go towards supporting Paul's accommodation costs, but also funding the partnership with the Atlantic Technological University and ART Health Solutions to lead novel research related to lifestyle factors that impact MND sufferers, and the Irish MND Association who are a charity that provide amazing services to support the needs of MND sufferers in Ireland and whom Paul has relied greatly on since his diagnosis. They receive no government funding and rely solely on the generosity of donations to continue to survive.

Through my association with Slough Town FC, the club have kindly agreed to support this event in the aim of engaging the wider football community to make a significant contribution to this fundraising and help not only Paul but raise awareness and funds for the wider MND community.

On the 9th September 2023 following our National League South fixture against Aveley FC at Arbour Park, we will be launching our own version of the "Dribble for MND" challenge. This time round the Dribble for MND challenge requires dribbling a ball 500m (or 5 pitch lengths), but with a twist – to beat various obstacles as fast as possible in a 5-person team!

To kick-off the challenge, I will be completing the challenge alongside some of my Slough Town FC teammates, to set a time to beat. And we are welcoming supporters to get involved to challenge us!

Following the challenge, we will be inviting the wider football community to see if they can beat the Slough Town FC efforts and see if we can spread the fundraising far and wide in the aim of making a significant contribution to Paul’s fight against MND as well as raising awareness and giving back to the wider MND community.

The challenge is simple:

1. Complete 5 pitch lengths in a 5-person team with 3 sets of obstacles as quickly as you can

2. Record your effort and send in your time

3. Donate whatever you can to support the cause

4. Nominate others to spread the challenge far and wide! ‍‍

Thank you for reading, and thank you for any donation - if you've done so, you (yes, you!) have really made a tremendous difference to Paul and his family as he battles this horrible disease.