Ryan McKenna

Friends and family of Robert Paulley have raised over £55,000 in aid of motor neurone disease research and - in doing so - keep his memory alive.

Why did you decide to fundraise for your chosen cause?

In memory of my best friend Robert, who we lost to MND in 2013.

Robert battled on for 5 years with the disease, determined to not let it stop him doing what he wanted to do. He travelled around the world, wrote poetry with his eye tracking software and launched a folk album with our friend.

We all love him and miss him dearly, and fighting to research a cure for this awful disease is our way of keeping his memory alive.

How did you raise money?

Each year I try and run a race or two, and we organise a fancy dress party, or just have some form of fun raising money for the Euan MacDonald Centre (EMC). We’ve been lucky to have Kevin Bridges (comedian) help us with some amazing comedy gig fundraisers, and when he was a contestant on “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire” it was a huge donation towards Robert’s Memorial Fund at EMC.

Fundraising wisdom

I tend to keep the reasons for doing it all at the forefront of my mind when I reach that 13^th mile! But seriously, just have fun and try and be inventive. Fancy dress parties, comedy nights, people like to have a laugh. They usually don’t mind digging deep if they have a smile on their face.

Related Links

Euan MacDonald Centre for MND Research