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Andrew Norton 10 March 1948 to 18 May 2022
It is with great sadness when I tell you that Andrew passed away on 18 May, 2022 after testing positive for Covid at the beginning of April but with an underlying health condition.
Andrew joined the Cambridgeshire Branch in February 2004 as Newsletter Editor following the death of his mother-in-law, Lorna Custerson in April 2003 from MND. In December 2004 he was invited to become Chairman of the Cambridgeshire Branch after the previous Chairman became ill. He continued producing the quarterly Newsletter and even printed it himself for several years.
The Branch profile was raised under Andrew’s leadership and we won an MNDA National Office award for several years running as one of the best MND Branches. He resigned as Chair in January 2010 and became Vice-Chair, resigning in 2013 but has continued fundraising until his death in May.
In 2004, Andrew raised £8,500 completing a sponsored run in a 1974 Pontiac Ville Convertible car along Route 66 with his widow, Christine, and 4 family friends following Lorna Custerson’s death. This was followed by Christine’s homemade greeting cards, calendars, knitted novelties and jewellery, which he sold for many years, mainly in the Addenbrookes Hospital Outpatients Hall. Other venues were also used wherever suitable places could be found, and he would also take a selection to our monthly Get-Togethers for our members to purchase.
RIP Andrew.
Maire Collins: Secretary
MND Research
£4.25m investment into MND research announced A new £4.25 million partnership which aims to discover meaningful treatments for MND in ‘years not decades’ was announced to coincide with Global MND Awareness Day on 21 June.
Researchers from six universities across the UK have been awarded the funding to kick start collaborative efforts to end MND. Generous donations from supporters to Kevin Sinfield’s Extra Mile Challenge has meant the MND Association has been able to contribute £1 million to the MND Collaborative Partnership. Other funders to the partnership are charities LifeArc, MND Scotland and My Name’5 Doddie Foundation and government bodies Medical Research Council (MRC) and National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). Nicola Waters, who is living with MND, said:’Donations and the work of charities like the MND Association have brought us to the brink of a cure for this terrible disease.’ It is hoped the Partnership will provide a launchpad for further collaborative investments into MND research, including the £50 million committed by the Government in November 2021 as a result of the United to End MND campaign. Dr Brian Dickie, Director of Research and Development at the MND Association, said:’Collaboration is crucial to success.
We are delighted that leading scientific minds across the UK have the opportunity to combine their expertise, supported by the joined-up funding from multiple organisations, in the common aim of understanding, treating and ultimately defeating MND.
Prof. Ammar Al-Chalabi, Co-Director of the research programme and Professor of Neurology and Complex Disease Genetics at King’s College London, said: ’Our goal is to discover meaningful treatments for MND within years, not decades. This landmark funding will bring the UK’s major MND research centres together for the first time in a co-ordinated national effort to find a cure. We now have a much better understanding of MND, so we must take this opportunity to accelerate development of new treatments and work together to move this knowledge into the clinic and help people affected by this devastating disease.’
